Nooka's Will
by Polgaria
Summary: Nooka…and orphan found by the Lady Polgara when she was just one, is fourteen…she has not yet shown any signs of capability with the “will and word” and she is worried that perhaps she never will. Terrified that she might be left to die an normal
1. Disclaimer and Extra Characters

*DISCLAIMER*  
  
These characters are not mine- the series of "Belgariad, Mallorean" are not mine. I take no ownership of any material written by David Eddings or Leigh Eddings (as I REALLY do not want a rather nasty letter from the Random House legal department and have to leave town and change my name shortly thereafter) Please do not take any of these writings, please do not say it is original and PLEASE do not take any of the characters that I have made up (ie: Nooka, Grass, Ashkira) Thank~you and enjoy. ^.^  
  
~Polgaria  
  
Characters you don't know:  
  
Nooka : and orphan girl found by Polgara in the Vale, near "the" tree- you know, the big one that's been there since the beginning of the world..okay.  
  
Grass: Nooka's ridiculous orange kitten  
  
Storyline: Nooka.and orphan found by the Lady Polgara when she was just one, is fourteen.she has not yet shown any signs of capability with the "will and word" and she is worried that perhaps she never will. Terrified that she might be left to die an normal person's death and have to leave Polgara, Durnik, and her friends forever- perhaps only eighty years later- she sets forth on a dangerous quest of self discovery. But is she alone? She has friends, yes, and someone else has been following her as well. 


	2. Nooka's Discovery

Chapter One  
  
In a world of sorcerers and magic, the will and the word, existed a small, beautiful place which Belgarath the Eternal and Poledra, his wolfish, handsome wife had aptly, and fondly named "The Vale."  
  
This place, where will flowed as freely as the green grasses that shimmered and rippled in the soft breeze, was a haven. A place of tall towers filled with nick-knacks and doo-dads, papers and jumblings of all sorts, and an evilly entwined stick with only one end- which brought one tiny sorceress no end of frustration- a place of discovery and growing, and a place of great love.  
  
Nooka, at the age of one, had been found wandering parentless in the Vale near the Tree of Ages. The small, curly-haired toddler had been immediately discovered by the Lady Polgara- who had not only heard her crying out in her loneliness, but had been told of her presence by at least one hundred ecstatically twittering birds. At once, she transformed herself into the majestic snowy form that she loved so well and took flight to the fabled tree where the small girl sat wailing. Polgara had landed gracefully, transforming to her human form just before touching land, so that she stood just feet from the child. Seeing the little girl in merely scraps of clothing, bruised and scraped and moderately filthy, she felt her heart tug, and she knelt quickly down to where the baby sat. The child, startled out of her throes, stopped her crying and looked tearfully up into Polgara's startling violet eyes, which in their compassion had filled with tears.  
  
"Will you come with me my little one?" she asked quietly, reaching out a lovely hand to the tiny girl. In reply, the baby tottered unsteadily to her feet, being only a very young, wee thing and placed a chubby little hand into the Lady Polgara's outstretched one. And with that small sign of approval, Polgara enfolded the small girl into a loving, protective embrace and walked all the way back to her mother's cottage -which was a very long way away to be walking so close to dark- singing softly to the baby she would take in as her own.  
  
"Durnik," thought Polgara as she neared their home in the small clearing of birch trees.  
  
"Yes dear?" he replied fuzzily- he had been sleeping.  
  
"I've a surprise-" she began tenderly.  
  
"What's that Pol?" he asked, sounding very interested and just a little excited.  
  
"I'll be home in a minute- why don't you put a pot of water over the fire?"  
  
"But what-" he began curiously.  
  
"Now dear," she sighed mentally, tightening her hold on the baby, who had fallen into a deep slumber in her arms, one of her fat little hands entwined around the single lock of radiant white hair.  
  
"Yes Pol," he replied in dutiful resignation.  
  
Polgara arrived at the cottage a little while later to find that Durnik had indeed put the water on as she had asked. Smiling to herself, she walked over to where Durnik dozed in front of the fireplace. The baby, who had just awoken, cooed contentedly and snuggled down against Polgara, tightening her hold on the Lady's hair. Polgara winced slightly, but found herself laughing- her Garion had always done that same thing when he was a baby.  
  
"Oh Nooka," she sighed, suddenly aware of the name that had so readily attached itself to the small girl, without her even having known of it. Durnik awoke and looked up to find his wife giggling softly at the small bundle in her arms. Wordlessly, he stood to look into the folds of her cloak, seeing finally the surprise his Pol had promised. She looked up at him then, and kissed him softly on his mouth. The baby smiled and fell back to sleep.  
  
Thirteen years later, Nooka was only about three feet taller than the way Polgara found her. Her hair was longer, although still a luminous chestnut with curls abound. Her dark blue eyes were always moving, searching for her next new adventure with her ridiculous kitten named Grass.  
  
After finishing her morning duty of scouring the pots, Nooka ambled idly through the Vale with her orange, tiny speck of a kitten perched precariously on her shoulder. The cat, of course, wasn't making any effort to sit still, but was pawing rather ferociously at Nooka's long, curly brown hair.  
  
"Grass," began Nooka mildly as she slowed her walk to a stop, "if you don't stop doing that right this instant- I'll have my Polgara turn you into a radish." The kitten contemplated that momentarily and giving a small sigh, whacked Nooka's hair one more time -for good luck, as cats are very superstitious- and settled down on the shoulder of it's tiny owner, purring sulkily.  
  
"Now cat," she chided affectionately, taking the small kitten into her hands and looking into its bright green eyes for which it had received it's name, "don't sound so disappointed- I let you bat at my poor hair for at least ten minutes before I told you to stop and threatened you with life as vegetable, and a rather distasteful one at that. Cheer up why don't you? Having you purr so woefully into my ear is very distressing and just a trifle tiring."  
  
In response, the kitten yawned widely and licked it's nose before falling promptly to sleep in Nooka's hands.  
  
"Stupid little beast," sighed Nooka warmly, tucking the kitten safely into the crook of one arm and heading for home.  
  
Home of course, was Poledra's cottage. The lovely little building with the thatched roof and expansive gardens was tucked neatly into a grove of birch trees and surrounded by a large fence that Durnik had built, using some birch wood and a little "will-grease" too. She found Polgara tinkering happily around in her garden, pulling weeds and humming softly to herself.  
  
"Hello dear," she said, looking up and brushing flyaway strands of ebony out of her eyes, leaving a smear of dirt on her creamy, slightly blushed cheek.  
  
Nooka suppressed a giggled and walked over to Polgara, giving her a hug. The kitten mewed in slight protest, it's nap having been interrupted.  
  
"Oh, sorry Grass," apologized Nooka, setting the disgruntled kitten back on her shoulder.  
  
"Does that cat really have to go everywhere with you?" asked Polgara dubiously as she returned to pulling weeds.  
  
"Grass?" replied Nooka sombrely, "he absolutely insists. In fact," she carried on, "I'm sure he'd have you turn me into a toad if I didn't let him tag along- and I think-"  
  
"That will do dear," sighed Polgara calmly, wrenching a particularly stubborn plant from the ground with a small grunt of satisfaction.  
  
"Sorry," said Nooka, smiling sheepishly. She turned to go into the house.  
  
"Nooka," came the tone she knew so well. She wondered just what she'd done wrong this time.  
  
"Yes Polgara?" she said, turning her head to look at her foster mother who still sat amid her flowers.  
  
"Whatever did you get all over the back of your dress-" she began in a terrifying calm, "those red flowers down by the brook aren't for sitting in you know. Their dye is positively dreadful to try and wash out!"  
  
Nooka puzzled over this for a moment. She hadn't been anywhere near the brook and she was just about to tell Polgara so when the woman began to laugh.  
  
"Would you care to share, Polgara?" asked Nooka indignantly, even more confused then before. She didn't like it when she was not privy to jokes, especially ones made about her.  
  
"Oh-" chuckled Polgara, trying to regain composure, "I'm sorry dear. I didn't realise that you're very nearly fifteen. It is rather time that this happened after all."  
  
"What happened?" Nooka gasped, turning herself to look at the back of her dress. "Polgara, what's all that red stuff?" she exclaimed in surprise, eyeing the large red spot that had spread over the soft brown fabric of her dress.  
  
"It's just blood dear, don't be frightened," replied Polgara, wiping the dirt from her hands on her apron as she stood up and walked over to her daughter.  
  
"Blood?" Nooka felt the back of her dress and raised her reddened fingers to her eyes. "What do you mean it's just blood? Where am I bleeding from? I don't remember falling down! Polgara!" she sobbed as she flung herself into her foster mother's arms. Nooka was usually subject to hysterics when she was frightened, and now was certainly no rare exception.  
  
"Nooka," she soothed in her clear, melodic voice, "it's alright. This happens to every woman about this time in her life. It will only last a few days. Haven't I ever told you about this before dear?" Polgara hugged her daughter tightly and rested her chin on the tiny girl's head.  
  
"No!" sobbed Nooka tearfully, burying her head into the soft folds of Polgara's blue work-dress.  
  
"Oh," she exclaimed in slight surprise. "It must have slipped my mind. You've grown so fast dear I hardly know where the time's gone."  
  
"Thanks awfully," sniffled Nooka stormily. She knew her foster mother was three thousand years old, but she thought perhaps the life of her first daughter foundling might have meant a little more to her.  
  
"Don't be snide dear," remarked Polgara calmly. "And Nooka- your life means very much to me- so please- don't accuse me otherwise."  
  
"I'm sorry!" the tiny girl wailed, clinging to Polgara's dress, still weeping with a great energy.  
  
"I know dear. Now please, you mustn't cry so, you'll make yourself sick and it makes you look positively dreadful. Now," she began, "didn't your stomach hurt at all this morning? Usually that's the way it happens."  
  
Nooka thought about it. Her stomach had been sore. "Yes, but I had thought it was just the greu- I mean - porridge," replied Nooka, coughing uncomfortably as she saw the woman's eyes harden into a frosty shade of blue. Polgara was very testy about her porridge and she certainly wasn't in the mood for a fight with her foster mother just now.  
  
"The next time Prince Kheldar pays us the good fortune of a visit, you and I are going to go on a very long walk my Nooka. That terrible little man seems to be corrupting you!" Polgara fondly tussled Nooka's curly hair and led her inside the cottage where she proceed to help Nooka change her clothing and showed her how to use cloth and dried moss to absorb the blood. She explained that the bleeding would probably last for a few days and that it would very likely be back in a little over three weeks. Nooka had been angry at that too. Polgara had calmly explained that it would be there for the next thirty or so years, or longer, depending on certain things that she would not explain. 


	3. The Plot Against Pol

Chapter 2  
  
Just after Nooka had finished being told several more uncomfortable things she would have liked to have had the good fortune of not knowing, Durnik appeared home with several fish and a large, self-sufficient grin plastered on his kindly, honest face. Nooka turned quickly to Polgara. "Don't tell him, "she whispered fervently, wringing her hands.  
  
"Why ever not dear?" queried Polgara practically. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. It is simply a natural part of life."  
  
"But Polgara," Nooka argued in anguish, rolling her eyes nervously in Durnik's general direction, "it's embarrassing!" As much as Nooka loved Durnik- he was a man, and a very prim and proper one at that- and she didn't want him knowing about this disgusting thing which had just befallen her in her seemingly innocent state of youth.  
  
Polgara sighed in resignation and looked upon Nooka's pale face with an unwavering calm. "Alright Nooka, I won't tell him."  
  
"Thank-you!" replied Nooka gratefully, impulsively embracing Polgara.  
  
"You're welcome dear," smiled Polgara, returning the embrace warmly.  
  
"What's all this about?" asked Durnik as he set his bountiful catch down by the fireplace.  
  
"Nothing!" replied both Polgara and Nooka, bursting into a fit of giggles. Durnik, who was quite loath to understand the way of the opposite sex simply sighed and rolled his eyes heavenward, muttering something about 'confounded women' and began to clean his fish, as that was Polgara's only rule when it came to his favourite pastime.  
  
"Alright Nooka," began Polgara practically, "if you've nothing better to do, I'll need seven carrots, tomatoes, celery, and at least six good sized potatoes. When you've fished with that, I'll need them all washed and a pot of water put over the fire- which by the way will need wood, which you'll need to bring in."  
  
"Is that all Polgara?" Nooka was unable to help herself. She knew what was coming- she'd even expected it before hand. But could she have prevented it? The truth of the matter was, she didn't really want to.  
  
"Nooka- *right now!*" yelled Polgara, rather characteristically. Nooka giggled and scampered out of the house, a large basket over her arm and a ridiculous orange kitten on her trail.  
  
An hour or so later, Nooka had finished her hefty list of things to do from Polgara. The vegetables were washed- now chopped, and set in the pot over the fire- which Nooka had built and lit. *But alas,* Nooka thought to herself, *now I need to make something for lunch. Polgara will want something light I think- and Durnik did catch all of those fish.*  
  
After lunch, Nooka actually had some time to herself. And like all the other times when she had some time to herself, Nooka found that she could think of nothing to do. Falling back on old habits, she went in search of Durnik. She found the kindly man repairing one of the sections of the fence around Polgara's treasured garden.  
  
"Durnik?" she ventured quietly.  
  
"Hmm- Oh, hello Nooka," he replied, bringing his head out of his work. "What are you up to on this fine, beauteous day?" Durnik picked up a hammer and began banging absently on the rotten piece of wood that needed to be removed, humming softly.  
  
"Not much actually- I was sort of hoping that you'd give me something to do," confessed Nooka just a little guiltily.  
  
"Nooka- haven't you been doing chores all morning?" asked Durnik just a trifle quizzically.  
  
"Yes- but-" she began without success.  
  
"But now that you've finished, you can't think of anything to do and you're bored out of your pretty little head?" supplied Durnik knowingly.  
  
"Exactly," agreed Nooka amiably. "Have you anything in mind?" Durnik rocked back on his haunches for a moment and gave the issue a generous amount of thought.  
  
"You know," he said, placing a ponderous hand to his mouth, "I think we should do something for our Pol. She's been awfully busy lately tending to that garden of hers and trying to keep the cottage in some kind of order- she needs, ahh," he paused, scratching his head in thought, "a nice dinner- that she didn't need to make!" Durnik smiled triumphantly at his brilliant plan and Nooka returned his smile happily. It was a good idea.  
  
"But how do we get her out of the house- she'll never leave the dinner!" cried Nooka in mock despair.  
  
"We'll simply have to tell her something!" Durnik replied deviously. Durnik was not devious though- he hadn't conniving bone in his honest body- and so he sounded rather insane instead. Nooka stifled a giggle and plastered a serious look onto her face, but Durnik was too busy thinking about how to get rid of his beloved wife for the afternoon to notice.  
  
"I'll tell her that I sensed something, near the edge of the Vale- Grolims perhaps, a demon- anything. Then, we'll simply go off in that direction and not come back for a couple of hours. You'll do well with the food and then she'll have a nice surprise!"  
  
"Durnik," began Nooka doubtfully, "are you sure that's going to work. Polgara is certainly not stupid and there haven't been any Grolims or demons around for as far back as you've told me-"  
  
"Don't worry," winked Durnik encouragingly, "just you get yourself back to the cottage and I'll take care of Pol."  
  
And with Durnik's fine optimism, Nooka fled back to the cottage to begin preparing dinner. She hadn't really much to do- the soup was already on and she would now need just a salad and some bread- and of course, something to satisfy Durnik's sweet tooth- and although Polgara didn't like to admit it -for reasons she would not reveal- hers as well!  
  
The rest of Nooka's afternoon was spent slaving away in the kitchen, save and hour which she spent outside drawing an odd little blue bird that had appeared happily onto one of the larger, stockier plants. The picture would be for Polgara- Nooka had always noticed how she loved birds, and smiled whenever one was near, head cocked and listening to it's sweet song.  
  
Just as Durnik had promised, he and Polgara returned to the cottage slightly before twilight- but un-promised was the impending darkness which hung stormily over the Lady Polgara like a rather persistent cumulo- nimbus.  
  
As she stalked in the door, muttering savagely to herself Nooka looked up from her final touches on the table and backed slowly away from her foster mother. She glanced fearfully at Durnik who shrugged at her helplessly.  
  
"What ever possessed you to tell me that there was an entire fleet of Mallorean soldiers storming across the boundaries of the Vale you ridiculous excuse of a man?!" she screamed finally at the poor former- blacksmith, waving her hands in the air and pacing around the small hall by the front entrance.  
  
"I mean- honestly!" she bellowed, at a loss for any word to describe her infinite rage.  
  
"Now Pol," Durnik began reasonably, carefully approaching his rampant wife to lay a tentative hand on her arm.  
  
"Don't 'now Pol' me!" came the screech that shook the very rafters of the cottage and invented several new octaves to add to the chromatics of the old ones.  
  
Nooka's stomach writhed with unease. She'd never seen Polgara so very mad in her entire life and now she looked as though at any moment she might begin to start blowing things up. With a grim resolve, Nooka wiped her hands on the front of her work dress and marched bravely up the raving Polgara.  
  
"Excuse me my Polgara," she began eloquently, "but you're dinner is getting quite cold."  
  
Polgara looked as though she was going to take Nooka's head off for the first few moments after the girl's gallant intervention- but suddenly her expression changed and her beautiful face, flush from anger, quickly paled in submission. A quick glance into the dinning room of the cottage told Polgara all she needed to know to feel quite thoroughly terrible.  
  
"Oh dear," she murmured, raising a sheepish hand to her mouth.  
  
"Yes," echoed Durnik mildly, "oh dear indeed." 


	4. Returning of Vo Wacune

Chapter 3  
  
  
  
"You mean you didn't sense any Mallorean soldiers- and I actually believed you?" asked Polgara incredulously.  
  
"Well, yes Pol," confessed Durnik with a sly grin on his face. "But don't be too upset dear, I'm sure we all have our slow days."  
  
Polgara narrowed her eyes viciously but then, her features softening, threw her arms around Durnik's neck girlishly. "Oh my Durnik, whatever would we do without you?" she cried happily.  
  
"Absolutely nothing," replied Nooka, firmly linking an arm with Polgara and leading her towards the table.  
  
Their dinner that night was superb, if Nooka said so herself and Polgara enjoyed it immensely, laughing and talking all the while. It had been a long time since she had been seen that way by Nooka- and the simplicity of just giving her a nice little surprise convinced Nooka that perhaps she would do it more often. When Polgara was happy it was as thought the entire world sang out to her, glorious and new. After she had finished the dishes, Nooka ran to her room to retrieve the bird picture. She had wrapped it in a piece of brown parchment and put a small bow of green satiny ribbon around it with a note which stated in Nooka's flowery handwriting:  
  
~For my Polgara, with all my love, your Nooka  
  
Shyly, she shuffled back to where Polgara sat on the floor by the fire, absently running her fingers through her luminous black hair, the strange white lock glowing in the fire-light.  
  
"Polgara- I- have something for you," stumbled Nooka awkwardly. She'd never really done anything like this for Polgara before in her whole life and she was rather afraid how her capricious foster mother would react to it.  
  
"What's that Nooka?" queried Polgara absently as she drew herself almost reluctantly from the fire a ways and looked to the small girl standing nervously in front of her, her hands clutching something behind her back.  
  
"It's a picture for you," answered Nooka as she knelt down beside Polgara. The sorceress's eyes lit to pure brilliance with interest. The tiny young woman in front of her had never shown her any interest of drawing before.  
  
"Oh? Well, let me see it dear," said Polgara happily, "it isn't doing very much good to hide it behind your back."  
  
Nooka smiled and handed Polgara the drawing.  
  
First she read the tag and smiling, she looked up at Nooka with just a trifle of an extra shine to her violet eyes. Then, slowly, Polgara untied the ribbon and pulled back the paper to reveal the beautiful little jewel- blue and gold bird which seemed to want to take flight from the paper and sing the light of the fire into the approaching darkness, it's quizzical black eyes gazing intently into Polgara's own.  
  
"Vo Wacune!"* she gasped suddenly. With an anguished scream of despair muffled only by her hand, Polgara stood hastily and fled the cottage with the drawing still clenched tightly in the other hand.  
  
"Pol!" called Durnik, woken from his doze by his wife's cry. Turning to Nooka he asked rather angrily, "What was it? What did you put on that paper!?" Terrified by Durnik's sudden, not to mention frighteningly uncharacteristic rage, Nooka cowered beside the fire, confused and broken.  
  
"N-nothing," she stuttered thickly through her timorous tears. "It- it was j-just a b-b-bird!" But Durnik was already out of his chair, shoving his boots on in the front hall. With a loud slam of the thick wooden door, he ran furiously from the house in search of his adored wife.  
  
"It was only a little bird," whimpered Nooka hysterically, to no one in particular, wringing her hands around the forgotten silk ribbon.  
  
And suddenly, Nooka had to know what she had done wrong. It was her Polgara after all- no matter what anyone said! And she loved her so much it was rather nauseating to anyone who didn't understand.  
  
Feeling just as sick with guilt, Nooka ran from the cottage into the deep darkness of night, to search for her Polgara.  
  
Flying to the stable she quickly mounted Horse, Eriond's beast which he had left in the Vale's care when he had become the new God of Angarak.  
  
Horse, feeling Nooka's apprehension quivered with unease under the small girl's body and she patted him consolingly. "Horse, I've got to find my Polgara," she explained desperately. The horse whickered nervously and suddenly bolted out of the stables and clear out of the clearing into the dense forest to where the woods would meet the grassy lands of the Vale.  
  
Nooka, only having ridden Horse once or twice was clinging on to the out of control animal for dear life, trying desperately not to scream out in fear. But the horse seemed to know precisely where he was going, and where he was going- precisely- was in the direction of the tree.  
  
Three quarters of an hour later, Nooka and Horse -rather Horse and Nooka- arrived at the base of the tree. The horse, of course was nonplussed that he had just bolted clear through the Vale in less than an hour. Nooka, however thought that she might just like to crawl into a very small hole and never look at a horse again. And this was all past mentioning the fact that Nooka was still bleeding in rather an ongoing fashion.  
  
"Did you really have to do that?" she inquired hotly of the animal. Horse whinnied happily and actually seemed to be grinning- a wide, rather outlandish horse-like grin.  
  
"Get over yourself," declared Nooka as she set about unwinding her legs from the animal's broad back. It was rather painful as she had spent the last forty-five minutes clinging for sweet existence to the ridiculous animal's back.  
  
Finally, Nooka stood rather painfully at the base of the tree. She looked up into the dark, rustling depths of the foliage, "Polgara- I know you're up there!" she bellowed tearfully. Durnik's anger had frightened her half out of her wits and she still hadn't regained any sort of composure.  
  
No answer but the woeful, disjointed hoot of an owl came from the branches above. "Polgara? Come down- I need to talk to you! Please?" beseeched Nooka frantically. Still no reply came.  
  
Nooka blew out an angry breath and walked right up to the trunk and placed her hands on the bark.  
  
"If you won't come down," declared Nooka firmly, "I'm coming up!"  
  
And then Nooka saw the trouble with her reasoning. She was four feet tall. The lowest branch of the tree was ten feet above the ground. That left some six odd feet of space which the tiny girl had no way of covering. Nooka muttered a few choice words that she had heard uncle Beldin use before- and ridiculous though it was- she managed to turn her own face red! Several minutes later, the curses hadn't helped and Nooka began a new plan.  
  
Disconsolately, she grabbed hold of the bark and tried to shimmy her way up the tree. She managed quite remarkably to climb at least three feet before she fell promptly to the ground with a resounding whack.  
  
Only slightly phased, she marched back to the tree for another go.  
  
*THUMP*  
  
"Third time's the charm," Nooka grumbled huffily as she grabbed hold of the tree again.  
  
When she had fallen for the third time, Nooka collapsed at the trunk with tears of frustration coursing down her cheeks as she berated the ground with her fists. And then, suddenly Nooka felt a strange shiver flow through the tree's roots and strait in to the ground which she was endeavouring to beat into a dirty pulp. And then there were branches- good, strong, wondrously thick branches growing out just a foot above the ground every which way, all the way up to the canopy of the ancient and mystical tree.  
  
Without even contemplating the oddity of the tree's sudden growth, Nooka began to hastily climb into the great heights of the tree, upwards and onwards in her search of the one she loved the most, but had somehow hurt so dreadfully.  
  
"Polgara?" she called out tentatively when she found herself finally so surrounded by the dark, rustling foliage that she couldn't see two feet in front of her eyes. To her left, Nooka heard a deep, quavering sigh.  
  
Scrambling through the twigs and pushing aside large, velvety leaves Nooka traced the origin of the anguished sound.  
  
And in a single beam of moonlight that filtered eerily through the denseness that was the tree sat her Polgara, slowly swaying to and fro, gazing at the picture she clutched in trembling hands with grieving eyes overflowing.  
  
Another great shuddering sigh escaped from the sorceress and Nooka was terrified to see that Polgara was still weeping violently, crying harsh, bitter sobs.  
  
"Gara?" whimpered Nooka softly, reverting back to the comforting name she had called Polgara when she was just a wee thing in the sorceress's lap.  
  
"Nooka, go home," came the rasping response.  
  
Ignoring her, Nooka climbed up beside Polgara on the large branch so wide it was like a bed.  
  
Nooka moved to embrace the woman but she was pushed forcefully away. Crushed almost beyond reckoning, Nooka covered her mouth to smother the cry of heartbreak trying to wrench itself from the very depth of her spirit.  
  
Fighting for control of her very mind Nooka valiantly decided to try again rather than perform her first instinct which was to hurl herself to the ground after Polgara's devastating rejection of her.  
  
Almost fiercely, Nooka wrapped her arms tightly around Polgara's waist and buried her head against the shaking shoulders of 'her Gara.'  
  
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," murmured Nooka continually in as soothing a voice as she could muster in her rather traumatized state.  
  
Finally Polgara responded by returning the embrace desperately, clinging to the small girl as though she might never let go. "Nooka, it isn't your fault. I love you," said Polgara firmly, and then everything was alright again.  
  
"I love you too," Nooka murmured through her tears. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------  
  
*Vo Wacune is the place that Polgara lived in for quite some time three thousand odd years ago that her father had to destroy. She had come to love the place so dearly that she never forgave him- and now, whenever it is mentioned, she becomes terribly upset. 


	5. The Rites of Vo Wacune

Chapter 4  
  
  
  
Polgara rode home on Horse with the tiny girl curled securely across her lap, clinging sleepily to her foster mother. Horse ambled at a slow trot, whinnying happily every so often.  
  
"Gara- why did that bird make you so upset? I thought you liked all birds," murmured Nooka fuzzily.  
  
Polgara took a deep breath and paused, as if she was going to tell Nooka that it was just one of those things she was going to have to let lie, but then she exhaled slowly and replied, "That particular little bird lived only in Vo Wacune- a place that my father destroyed when I was very much younger than I am now. It was a special place for me that I grew with and watched grow. I loved it so and when my father demolished the entire city I was-" she paused, fighting for composure "-heartbroken."  
  
Nooka wrapped her arms more tightly about the woman to console her, afraid perhaps that she would disappear within herself again and perhaps never come out.  
  
"You see my Nooka, it was such a place full of wonders and beauties- and it was not corrupt, not like everywhere now where if you turn your back even for a second your life can be stolen from you. The cultures and mysticism there were unique unto themselves and I will never forget how the rites sounded with a dozen different harmonies rising and falling and rising again to the very stars." Polgara sighed passionately.  
  
Nooka, sensing the woman's longing said something which for the rest of her life she would be thankful, "Will you sing one for me Polgara?"  
  
"Yes dear," she replied thoughtfully, "I think I will." Polgara rose her clear voice into the air in the ancient rites of Vo Wacune.  
  
Melodies rose and fell, tremulous and then suddenly powerful and intrepid and all the while, the beautiful voice of the sorceress seemed to grow and shape, taking over Nooka's entire world and making her heart soar with joy.  
  
She looked up into the eyes her foster mother feeling again the overwhelming love touch her heart and then, Polgara did something quite unusual. Still singing, she smiled in silent direction and Nooka began to sing with her. Her high soprano voice began as a shaky squeak but her growing confidence transformed it into a clearly shining resonance that ascended, as Polgara had said, to the very stars.  
  
The foreign words and strange harmonies came to her as though she had sung them for a thousand years. After what seemed like and unspeakable amount of time, the rite was coming to and finish and reluctantly, the two ended the song.  
  
"Thank-you Polgara," Nooka delicately said. "I know this sounds very mundane- but I shall never forget what you've told me so long as I live, and my respect for you -and love- has grown very much tonight." And with those eloquent words beyond her fourteen years, Nooka snuggled down against the soft folds of Polgara's cloak and fell promptly into a deep slumber.  
  
Several hours later they returned home to Poledra's cottage. Nooka was fast asleep so Polgara carried her to her room.  
  
As she changed the girl into her nightdress she noted rather clinically that her daughter was still bleeding rather heavily. Deciding against waking her, she put an old blanket underneath her before tucking the girl into bed.  
  
Just then, Durnik walked in from the living room where he had seated himself rather huffily after and hour or so of not being able to locate his wife.  
  
"Are you alright love?" he inquired sympathetically as he walked over to where Polgara hovered near her sleeping child and embraced her firmly.  
  
"Yes dear," she replied, and kissed him slowly on the mouth.  
  
"Pol- I've got to confess something to you," said Durnik guiltily, taking one of Polgara's hands entreatingly into his own.  
  
"What's that dear?"  
  
"I- I yelled at her," he stated in a bemused fashion, as if he still couldn't quite believe it of himself.  
  
"I'm sure she'll get over it dear," said Polgara glibly as one corner of her mouth quirked upwards in attempts to suppress a smile. Her husband's idea of a yell was nothing more than a slight raise in the voice.  
  
"No Pol, I mean it," he declared sadly. "I really yelled at her- I made her cry!" he muttered in anguish as he looked down upon the peacefully sleeping Nooka, her small, pretty little face surrounded by her outrageously curly hair.  
  
Polgara was startled into silence. Then, regaining her wits, she said, "Well, then, I suppose you had better apologize to her tomorrow. And don't worry dear- she's had a very emotional day today. Some very big things have happened for her and you know how she's subject to hysterics when she's frightened. You don't get angry very often you know."  
  
"I know, I know," muttered Durnik wretchedly. "Don't rub salt Pol!" "I wouldn't think of it," purred Polgara as she turned from him to give Nooka a light kiss on the forehead.  
  
Durnik also bent to kiss his daughter and then, putting his arm around Polgara, they both left the room, closing the door slowly behind them so Grass, the ridiculous little orange kitten could skitter into the room to be with Nooka. 


	6. To Reek of Alorn

Chapter 5  
  
The very next day, Durnik apologized so profusely to Nooka for exploding at her that she could do nothing but graciously accept. After that, life continued on peacefully in the Vale. But as always, a young person's mind is a curious thing and after Polgara had accidentally let it slip a week later that puberty was the normal time for sorcery to start appearing, Nooka became curious as to whether she would have any or not. When next Silk visited the small cottage in the Vale, Nooka had a plan that could not fail- as long as Silk could provide her with the information she needed that is. She would ask the little rat-faced Drasnian if he could tell whether she was Sendarian or Alorn, Murgo or Mallorean, and then, whichever he deduced her to be, she would travel to that city and find out just who her parents were, and if they had had any talent.  
  
It wasn't just a simple interest in her past- it was a compulsive need to know if she was going to exist past the futile seventy-year life span of the average human. And if Nooka was simply an average human, a seventy year flash in Polgara's three thousand year life, it would crush her heart.  
  
Luckily, Nooka did not have long to wait.  
  
The esteemed Prince Kheldar and his lovely, not to mention entirely devious wife Liselle arrived just two weeks the latter of the Vo Wacune fiasco. But as the short little Drasnian rode into the clearing where the cottage was settled, he wore a look of intense distaste on his snide face and he pulled on his long, twitching nose nervously.  
  
Liselle looked similarly disturbed, but as she didn't have quite as defined a proboscis as her notorious husband, she was instead glancing around edgily at the ground near her mount, scanning fretfully for something neither Polgara, Durnik, or Nooka could see.  
  
After the usual spoken greetings had taken place, Polgara addressed Silk and Liselle's obvious discomfort.  
  
"Prince Kheldar, whatever's the matter? You and Liselle look positively bothered. Have you lost another unfortunate cargo ship full of beans?" The question seemed innocent enough really, but the contemptuous tone in which Polgara delivered it and even the weak smirk playing across Liselle's impish features suggested entirely otherwise.  
  
Silk made a sour face and advanced towards Polgara slowly, stopping just inches from her to look directly into her eyes.  
  
"Rats!" he shouted.  
  
The entire company jumped in surprise.  
  
"Rats Kheldar?" asked Polgara, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.  
  
"Rats my dear Polgara. Big, filthy, stinking rats by the hundreds!" Silk gestured frantically with his hands the exact size of the rats, which might have been slightly exaggerated.  
  
With a great deal of zealous disgust, he launched into a detailed description of the beasts, including fang length, tail size, smell, and various other terrible things along those lines.  
  
Nooka listened with fascination to each new and grotesque element of the apparently giant rats and Polgara and Durnik watched the demonstration with somewhat dubious expressions on their faces.  
  
When finally Silk was finished his winded explanation of the rat-attack, the sorceress regarded him speculatively, her face the epitome of disbelief.  
  
"Liselle, dear," she began as she turned towards the Margravine Liselle who was still perched nervously atop her horse, "when the two of you were passing through Nyssia to get here, your husband didn't chance to -ahh- indulge in any of the local entertainments did he?"  
  
"Sample any of the merchandise?" questioned Velvet mirthfully. "No, as a matter of fact, I don't believe he did."  
  
"That's insulting Polgara," Silk whined peevishly. "You know I don't do that sort of thing at all."  
  
Silk folded his arms across his chest in an abused sort of fashion and stalked back to his horse.  
  
"I didn't mean to be offensive Kheldar, but you have to admit- your story about those rodents rather sounded like 'the one that got away.'" "That's and interesting way of putting it Pol. It did sound rather like a fish tale, didn't it?" said Durnik mildly.  
  
"Thank-you dear," replied Polgara amiably.  
  
Nooka glanced at Durnik and shook her head. Anything to do with fish and that man was caught; hook, line, and sinker! Throw Polgara into it and you could get him to agree that snow was warm and the sun was cold!  
  
"To be fair Polgara," began Liselle seriously, "they really were about that large, and much worse than my dear husband described."  
  
"Thank-you," said Silk, flashing a smug little glare in Polgara's general direction.  
  
"That was unnecessary," stated Polgara coolly. She folded her arms haughtily across her chest.  
  
"Quite," agreed Velvet as she slipped gracefully from her mount's back and walked over to Polgara, embracing her warmly. "Oh Polgara, it's been too long, really," she sighed ass he released the woman.  
  
"It certainly has dear," smiled Polgara warmly.  
  
Then, unexpectedly, Polgara marched quickly towards Silk and wrapped her arms about his neck. Oddly enough, he returned the gesture by wrapping his arms tightly around her waist.  
  
"You as well Silk. I've missed our constant bantering."  
  
"Ah- well, yes," coughed Silk awkwardly. Polgara's unusual display of affection towards him seemed to have caught him painfully off guard. Polgara smiled devilishly and led the weary travellers into the cottage.  
  
Later that night, after they had all been thoroughly stuffed with one of Polgara's wonderful suppers, Nooka approached Silk by the fireside, pretending to be more interested in getting warm that in indulging him in any kind of conversation. Nonchalantly, she warmed her hands over the crackling flames.  
  
"So, Silk," she began with an air of unimportance, "what do you think I look like?"  
  
"Very nice Nooka," smiled Silk innocently.  
  
"Don't be silly," Nooka chided as she rubbed her hands together in a great show of disinterest. "I mean, what do I look like. You know, Sendarian, Mallorean, Drasnian- people wise."  
  
"Well," began Silk as he leaned forward in his chair so he could examine Nooka's face thoroughly, "to be honest, I'm not quite sure."  
  
Nooka tried to hide her disappointment under a nice layer of mockery.  
  
"What do you mean you're not sure. Certainly you, my dear Prince Kheldar can use your vast stores of Drasnian intelligence to decipher what exactly I am, can you not?"  
  
"Of course," Silk agreed cordially. "You aren't terribly tall, so you won't be an Arend- in fact- I think you're even shorter than Ce'Nedra, and she's half Dryad. But your hair isn't red at all," he mused, tugging thoughtfully on his nose. "Tell me Nooka, are you terribly practical?"  
  
"Just what exactly is that supposed to mean?" questioned Nooka indignantly as she removed her hands from the fire and placed them huffily onto her hips. "Not Sendarian then either," he concluded quickly as he dodged a light blow from Nooka's hand.  
  
"You do actually look quite a bit like Polgara- perhaps you're an Alorn. Have you ever been known to say 'one for his side'?"  
  
Nooka smiled. "Quite frequently. I've and ongoing tally between Durnik and Polgara. Polgara's winning," she added just a bit proudly.  
  
"That's it then Nooka- you've fairly light hair, lovely features, and a fierce temperament with a large heart behind it. You positively reek of Alorn." Nooka was just about to thank Silk when he screamed and hopped up onto the chair on which he had been sitting.  
  
"Rat!" he screeched as he pointed accusingly into the corner.  
  
Polgara glared icily at his now towering royal highness. "That, Kheldar, is Nooka's kitten." 


	7. I'll Come Back, I Promise

Chapter 6  
  
Silk and Liselle remained at Poledra's cottage for another week before leaving the secluded little heaven. In the seemingly endless period of time, Nooka had formulated a plan of implementation and had firmly emblazed it upon her thrifty little mind. Her biggest quarrel with herself now was simply when to launch said brilliant endeavour into motion. That and the fact that Silk had not bothered to tell her exactly which kind of Alorn he thought she was. As far as Nooka knew, there were several.  
  
Many other problems had presented themselves as well- the prospect of homesickness being foremost in Nooka's mind. And she had also heard from Durnik and Belgarath just what happened the last time someone made the mal- thought out decision to disappear from Polgara's vigilant care- and Nooka was really rather fond of Poledra's cottage in it's present condition of "un-destroyed."  
  
But, when Nooka weighed out her usually meticulously balanced morals, upsetting Polgara was the least of her qualms about the whole situation. If her fears about her impending mortality were confirmed, Nooka figured she wouldn't be around long enough to be bothered by the fact that Polgara would be angry with her. Six days following the departure of Silk and Velvet, who were returning to Drasnia and the expected child of their daughter Satin, the window of opportunity was flung wide open.  
  
Polgara had been called to the outskirts of the Vale to assist in the deliverance of an Algarian child and Durnik was repairing yet another section of the fence that seemed to be frequented by the cows who had all simply assumed that it was there for them to destroy, and for no other purpose but that. It was a usual occurrence, of course- if the cows weren't continually abusing the fence, something was wrong. But it did cause Nooka to wonder why Durnik didn't simply do something to the fence to 'make' it less breakable. She supposed that Durnik simply like fixing things and the fence was more than just a mundane chore for him- it was an out and out hobby.  
  
So that very morning as Polgara woke her even before the sun had risen to tell her where she would be that day, Nooka realised that it was now or never- no matter how much she knew it would hurt her Polgara.  
  
And so it was with grim determination that Nooka set to work shoving a stray pack full of needful things, like a hairbrush, a large, woolly blanket, extra clothing, and various other things she knew she would need. All the while, she talked to Grass, trying to feebly explain why she was leaving, and why the indignant little kitten couldn't come with her. After that, she moved outside to the storehouse and the stables. She hurriedly threw a few pack bags over Horse's back, filled them with travelling food that would not go bad for weeks and with one last winsome look at Poledra's, she left the note she'd written to Polgara on the table by the fire and wrapping her grey, Rivan cloak from Garion and Ce'Nedra around her, Nooka climbed upon Horse's back and rode swiftly from her home, tears of loneliness already coursing down her cheeks.  
  
Polgara returned home to her mother's cottage that night in a weary, but happy state. Both the mother and child had survived and all was well. Durnik was still out mending her fence and she laughed softly, wondering why he bothered when the cows would simply mow it down the next day. But then, she loved the man, and he loved her- so really, it was alright with her, whatever he chose to do about the fence. The cottage was quiet, save for the mournful mewling of a cat.  
  
"Grass," Polgara chuckled softly. Her Nooka was probably out with Durnik and had forgotten to feed her little friend. It was unusual that her young daughter would forget, but when one was with Durnik, it was understandably something that would be lost in tales of their adventures of just a few years back.  
  
Polgara walked slowly to the kitchen to find some leftover fish for the cat to eat and saw a small scrap of paper hastily addressed to her in flowery handwriting that could only have been from one little person. Instantly, Polgara's heart was in her throat and she flew to the table to retrieve the note, already knowing what it would say, but reading it anyway:  
  
Dear Polgara- this is going to sound stupid, but I'll say it anyway. I've gone to find out who my parents were. Not my real parents, because that's you and Durnik you see, but the people who, you know- made me. I need to know if I'm going to die. I don't want to- I really don't! If I do, I'll be old, and you and Durnik will be the same, and then I'll die and you won't remember me! I'll be back as soon as I can Gara- I really will. It's just that I have to know! I'll be careful, I promise- and I'll miss you and Durnik every day. Please tell Grass not to be mad at me- and please don't you be angry with me either. I love you my Gara with all my heart and all my brains and all my everything. I'm coming home and never forget that.  
  
~Love, your Nooka xo  
  
A sob caught in Polgara's throat as she folded the paper and pressed it to her heart. "Oh my Nooka, I'm going to bring you home." 


	8. Sigh, Alorns

Chapter 7  
  
As Nooka galloped hurriedly from the Vale, not daring to glance behind her should someone have wishes to end her quest, Polgara called on her daughters and mother- hoping they would see Nooka pass, or at least have sensed her daughter's distress and direction.  
  
She sent out a searching thought, "Beledra! Belgara! Mother! I need your help!"  
  
"What's happened?" came the tripled reply.  
  
Polgara took a calming breath and thought the entire note from Nooka at them.  
  
"Have any of you seen her- or sensed her?"  
  
"No mother," came Beledra's reply.  
  
"No mother," came her twin Belgara's.  
  
"Neither have I Pol. Perhaps we should all go and look for her. I'm sure we'll be able to catch up. The little one won't be able to go very far on foot."  
  
"She's taken Horse," Polgara stated vaguely.  
  
"Oh dear," replied Poledra mildly, "That does present a small problem."  
  
"Mhmm," agreed Polgara in an acid tone.  
  
"Don't be snarky dear. She's a smart girl. We'll all meet at the tree and then go owl and see if we can't find her, alright?" Poledra's tone was maternal and practical and Polgara was soothed instantly by her mother's calm sense of logic.  
  
"It'll be alright mother," came the twin's united condolence.  
  
"Fine. At the tree as fast as you can. We've got to find her."  
  
And with that, the presence of her mother and daughters was gone from Polgara's mind and she was alone with her thoughts once more.  
  
She's so very small. If anything happens to her- I'll kill whoever did it. And if nothing happens to her- I'll bring her home and never let go of her again! That's what Polgara was fervently thinking when she 'went falcon' and soared towards the tree.  
  
Nooka rode on into the night, as quickly as Horse's energetic legs would carry them both. As far as she knew- she was headed to Drasnia. Dangerous though it would be with Silk and Liselle around, she figured that it would be the most informative place she could travel to and that it was rather the closest- save for Algaria, which she was already in.  
  
Her place of destination was Boktor, and once there, she trusted that someone, somewhere, would have the information she was looking for.  
  
She rode along the River Aldur, and would continue to ride that way until she came to Aldurford. There, she would cross the bridge and take the causeway across the fens strait to Boktor. All in all, she surmised that the trip would take at least a week, if she rode long days and rested herself and Horse at night. For any other animal, it would have been a problem, but Horse sensed the urgency pressing Nooka forward, and after all- Horse was really a rather special horse, too.  
  
Polgara met her mother and her twin daughters at the tree just after speaking with them. Both Beledra and Belgara flew to their mother, their auburn hair flying in the wind, and wrapped her in a huge, three person embrace. Polgara smiled at her lovely daughters, at their green, shinning eyes and their reassuring smiles.  
  
"Don't worry mum- we'll find her!" said Beledra encouragingly.  
  
"Yes, we will," agreed Belgara firmly. "Have you any idea where she went?"  
  
Polgara's mind quickly sifted through the past fortnight's happenings. "Alorns," she muttered thoughtfully to herself.  
  
"Pol- this is no time to be prejudice," chided Poledra gently.  
  
"Don't be silly mother," retorted Polgara coldly. "I mean she was told by Silk that she looked and acted like and Alorn. What she wrote to me seems to lead in the direction of that as well. She wants to find out about her parents- so she'll have to go to some kind of archival centre. The best place for that would be somewhere in Cherek I would think- as it was the base of all the Alorn kingdoms."  
  
"I don't think so mum," mused Belgara thoughtfully. "Perhaps Boktor though. It's the centre of the entire espionage network in all of Drasnia. If anyone knows who her parents are, the people at the academy will, surely. She's a smart girl, after all. She'll know where to go."  
  
"Perhaps your right," conceded Polgara pensively. "That means she'll have to follow the River Aldur and take the causeway through the fens."  
  
"She wouldn't try taking a boat through, would she?" asked Beledra nervously.  
  
"I certainly hope not," gasped Polgara. "She's terrified of water and can't swim. She never was one for falling in the brook." A faint smile played across the sorceress's features.  
  
"Well," began Poledra brightly, "that sounds encouraging then. We'll go owl, fly down the river and see if we can't find the little pup."  
  
"Let's," agreed Pol as she shimmered into the form of her owl. Thrice more the transformation took place and then four snowy owls rose into the clear night sky, soaring on silvery wings. 


	9. The Bare Napping

Chapter 8  
  
Nooka resisted sleep as she rode through the grassy countryside, the gurgling of the River Aldur lulling her into a state of dangerous semi- consciousness invented by her very own foster grandfather, the roguish Belgarath.  
  
She had already passed the triple fork in the river that marked her passage into the real Algaria and out of the Vale and was now making her way past the Stronghold as well.  
  
Only the orb of light rising over the low hills in the east told Nooka that she had ridden clear through the night. By that time, she had made it at least a third of the way to Aldurford.  
  
There were still no signs of Polgara behind her and Nooka wondered fleetingly if her foster mother had been upset by her absence or had simply gone on with her life. After all- she wasn't Polgara's own child- perhaps the sorceress would go on without her, just a little sad at first but gradually forgetting Nooka bit by bit, until she faded into non-existence in the very darkest depths of her Gara's memories.  
  
And suddenly Nooka felt VERY guilty.  
  
She had totally given in to self-pity, a most undesirable trait- and to snap herself righteously out of it, Nooka proposed to herself and her faithful steed a most logical course of action.  
  
"Horse- I'm exhausted, and starting to feel rather sorry for myself, and seeing as how you've been graciously carrying me all of this way- you must be too. What would you say to a nice cool wade around in the river? We'll reach Aldurford by this afternoon- if you run nice and fast- so we can afford a break."  
  
The horse whinnied happily and pawed at the ground excitedly.  
  
"That's what I thought too," agreed Nooka mildly as she slid gelatinously from the animal's back, her legs sore from the excessive riding which she was so unaccustomed to. She removed her Rivan cloak and outer tunic before turning around to see Horse staring at her in the most unbelieving tone Nooka had ever seen from anything alive, or inanimate for that matter.  
  
"Well, you didn't think I was going to go in and get all of my clothing soaking wet, did you?" stated Nooka practically. "If it bothers you so much- don't watch! And honestly- you're a horse and I'm a girl. What could you possibly find offensive about me? You run around naked all the time- and I haven't ever once said anything to YOU about it, now have I?"  
  
The horse, with a disdainful snort, very demonstratively turned his back to the adamant girl and began to munch on some off the long grasses of the surrounding land.  
  
"Honestly," Nooka muttered to herself as she removed the rest of her clothing and waded into the cool waters of the river, surrounded by the small, eddying current that flowed freely around large river stones and the reedy plants that fringed the waterway.  
  
There were hardly any trees in the grasslands of Algaria, but the waist- high grasses of the territory made for excellent sneaking, and so when Nooka was snatched suddenly from her enjoyable spot in the river, it was too late to run when she realised what had happened to her- and much too late to hide.  
  
With a shriek of terror she writhed and twisted in the arms of her captor, not remembering for the time that she was clothed only in what she had come into the world wearing. When she looked up into the dark eyes of her grubby kidnapper, and saw the stupid grin on his face, she glanced quickly downwards at fairly well-developed self and realised the source of his repulsive amusement.  
  
Screaming colourful words at the top of her voice, Nooka bit hard into the hairy arm around her neck and the idiotic smirk on the man's face turned into an angry snarl, which showed a fairly toothless mouth and blackened remains of whatever was left of his dental apparatus.  
  
With a staggering blow to her head, Nooka was sent reeling into the dirt and fell promptly into a real unconsciousness.  
  
With a Neanderthal grunt of satisfaction, her hairy captor picked Nooka up by her arms and slung her across his back, hurriedly, but rather clumsily making his way far upriver to his crude boat- not a ship- but a horrible, shamble of a boat.  
  
  
  
Polgara and her small family of owls soared high over the grassy knolls of Algaria- searching for even the vaguest clue as to where the little Nooka had gone to. They flew clear into the dawn of the next day and then well into the oncoming darkness.  
  
She was beginning to lose hope as she circled another area in the hunt for her daughter.  
  
Just as she was about to report back to her mother and twins, she spotted a  
  
galloping horse- with no rider, coming back in the direction of the Vale.  
  
The beast was travelling flat out- obviously in a frenzied hurry. Polgara shifted forms mid air and plummeted down towards the careening animal in the form of a falcon. Almost before she changed, she recognized the animal to be none other than Eriond's very own Horse, which her Garion had brought back from the dead.  
  
Her heart leapt in her chest for the second time that week as she pulled up smoothly just before hitting the ground and landed on the beast's back.  
  
"Horse," she said urgently as she 'went human' once more and clung to the fleeing animal tightly, barely avoiding being thrown to the ground in what would be a fairly serious situation. "Where's Nooka?"  
  
The horse, so startled by this new rider suddenly stopped so abruptly that Polgara was nearly thrown front wards over his head.  
  
"Man," came the one syllable reply in halting horse thoughts.  
  
"Who?" urged Polgara.  
  
"Big. Ugly. Took tiny girl- ran. I ran too- Vale- to tell woman. You."  
  
"Alright. That's all I need. Did you see which way he went- and about how far?"  
  
"To sun down over hills. Follow water. Many hoof falls."  
  
"Thank-you," said Polgara rubbing the nervous animals neck soothingly. "Go back to the Vale."  
  
"Yes," came the relieved thought. "And do not Bird on my back. I like it not."  
  
"Of course," said Polgara amiably as she slid from the horse's back and went falcon, flying west, in the direction of the setting sun which sank behind the hills.  
  
"I've found Horse," thought Polgara to her mother. "She's been taken by a man and they're heading west, along the river. He said it happened about mid-morning and that the man was large and travelling fairly quickly."  
  
"Alright Pol- we'll catch up with you," came Poledra's reply. Within moments, three owls crested the last hill and the three were made four as Polgara and her family flew down the river to the 'sun down over hills.'  
  
In the next hour, the sorceress picked up on the trail. A Rivan cloak and various articles of very small clothing were scattered around on a bank by a calm section of the river.  
  
Up until that point- Polgara had maintained her usual, unwavering calm. But when she realised that her daughter had been taken- by a man, in a state of nakedness no girl of fourteen should be in around any man- Polgara very nearly vomited in her great distress.  
  
Visions of rape and murder hung heavily in her mind as she stared dumbly at the pile of clothing, the Rivan cloak clutched tightly in her shaking hands.  
  
"I'll kill him," she murmured vengefully as her mother and daughters landed beside her and gasped at the obviously terrible situation. 


	10. You Don't Have to Twist my Arm

Chapter 9  
  
Nooka was awoken by the steady jostling gait of her captor as he lumbered quickly down the river bank towards a dilapidated cargo ship. The sky was already greying with twilight and the first stars of the night were flickering eerily through the wisps of clouds that washed across the dimming cerulean of the day.  
  
She heard the water lapping against the tar-blackened sides of the vessel and as her subjugator stepped upon the rocking walkway to the upper deck, she could hear the aged boards creaking and groaning under his bulk.  
  
With a grunt, he bent and hauled up a large trap door. Roughly, he swung the still naked Nooka from his shoulder and threw her down the dank hole, which smelled of musk and aged water.  
  
She landed in a painful heap on top of her right arm. Something snapped and Nooka cried out in agony.  
  
Struggling to get up, she clutched her arm to her bare chest and gave a fleeting look around her small prison. She was not alone.  
  
She scrambled away from the dark figures against the walls, thinking they might be more men who would hurt her and look at her body they way the other had.  
  
"You mustn't be afraid dórea," came an unexpected voice of a woman from the other side of the small space. It was deeply accented and Nooka recognized it as the cadence of the Nadraks. Dórea, she suspected was a term of mild endearment, like the 'dear' her Polgara was so found of tacking onto every sentence she spoke.  
  
Suspiciously, Nooka moved closer to the woman, still clutching her arm to her chest.  
  
"Who- are you?" asked Nooka haltingly, squinting in the dim light of their prison, trying to catch even the vaguest glimpse of who she was speaking to.  
  
"My name is Ashkira. I am a slave, like you." The voice sounded kind and subdued- not at all like any other Nadrak she had heard before.  
  
"I am no slave," stated Nooka indignantly as she sat down and brought her knees up under her chin, trying to cover her bareness.  
  
"You're not?" asked the woman in bewilderment. "Then, dórea, whatever are you doing down in this hole with the rest of us? And why have you decided not to wear any of your clothes?" Nooka, having been subject to such mocking reprimands all her life quickly caught on, and with a submissive sigh, she let it go.  
  
"That's what I thought," replied the woman mildly. "But do not be ashamed- we are all the same here, aren't we girls?"  
  
Her question was answered by a few agreeable murmurs from the surrounding walls.  
  
"Why are we here?" asked Nooka in a terrified whisper.  
  
"We are slaves. We are being brought to the Dagashi to mate with them and bear them children that do not have the characteristics of what people think they should look like." She said this calmly, Nooka supposed she had already accepted her dire fate. But Nooka was not known for her exceptions and she was outraged at this.  
  
"I am only ten and four years old! I- I just got my courses a few weeks ago!" she stated with some embarrassment. "I cannot possibly be expected to bear children to a man I don't even know!"  
  
"Dórea, they do not care how old you are- they will take you, even against your will if need be, and hold you captive until you bear the child that they need. If you refuse to nurse the child, then it will be taken to someone who will. It is the way it is and we cannot change it."  
  
"But why don't we escape? That man looked none too intelligent and the river is not so deep or so wide that we can't swim it-"  
  
"Do you think we have not tried?" asked Ashkira zealously. "Do you think that we have so easily accepted our fate? That hole which we were thrown down is at least twelve feet above the tallest of our heads! We are too weak from hunger to even think of escape."  
  
Crestfallen and terribly frightened, Nooka began to cry quietly. She tried to wrap her arms about herself to warm her chilled skin, but her right arm, which was so undoubtedly broken stopped her and she shrieked in anguish again.  
  
"What is causing you pain dórea?" Ashkira queried sympathetically.  
  
"M-my arm. I think I've broken it," replied Nooka miserably.  
  
"Come here to me and let me see it. I was a healer before I was taken some weeks ago. My owner was a doctor."  
  
Nooka hesitated, still not being able to see the woman properly.  
  
"Come," she repeated softly, wondering why the small girl was so terrified of her. Nooka reluctantly obliged the Murgo woman and slowly shuffled over to where her dark form was leaning against the wall of the swaying ship.  
  
"Good girl," she praised as Nooka sat down beside her and offered her the wounded arm.  
  
Gently, she examined Nooka, clucking and murmuring as she felt the arm for injury. Nooka gritted her teeth and clamped her mouth to withhold the next scream trying to escape from between her parched lips.  
  
"Well dórea," began Ashkira tentatively, "it's definitely broken."  
  
"Oh dear," murmured Nooka sadly. If she had any plans to escape from her prison in the underbelly of the disgusting slave boat, she certainly couldn't carry them out with a broken arm.  
  
"I can set it if you would like me to," offered Ashkira as she gently let go of Nooka's arm.  
  
"W-what happens if I don't get it set?"  
  
"Well," she started practically, "it may heal crooked or it may not heal at all- in which case it may get infected and you could loose it altogether."  
  
Nooka gulped and looked down in the darkness at her arm, which was bent in an odd shape. She REALLY didn't want it to be like that for the rest of her life- and she rather like her arm in it's present position of attached to her shoulder.  
  
"Is it going to hurt?"  
  
"Probably," replied Ashkira truthfully.  
  
"Well, I guess you'd better do it then anyway," said Nooka bravely as she offered her arm to the kindly woman. As Nooka's eyes better adjusted to the dark, she could dimly make out the features of the woman. Her face was pretty and her hair was a dark black, like her Gara's. She looked to be about thirty, maybe a little less. Nooka imagined that the weeks spent in the bottom of a dingy cargo ship would not do credit to anyone's appearance.  
  
"Alright Nooka. This really will hurt a bit so don't be afraid to scream. The men up above won't care one way or the other and I don't want you biting your tongue off trying to suppress it, alright?"  
  
Nooka nodded and braced herself for what her newfound friend was about to do.  
  
Without any warning Ashkira quickly took hold of the two sections of bone in Nooka's forearm and firmly pulled them back into place with a resounding crack.  
  
Nooka screamed a word that doesn't bear repeating and then smiled in relief. Her arm still ached terribly, but at least the bone wasn't trying to push it's way determinedly through her skin anymore.  
  
"Thanks," Nooka gasped as she looked down at her now straitened appendage.  
  
"Think nothing of it dórea. I was glad to help."  
  
Nooka smiled again.  
  
"Now- I should put it in a sling of some sort," muttered Ashkira to herself as she rummaged around in a small pile of clothing beside her. "Aha!" she exclaimed in triumph as she produce a fairly clean looking scrap. "Give me your arm and I will bandage it for you."  
  
"Okay," agreed Nooka.  
  
When the sling was on, Ashkira removed one of her outer garments and gave it to Nooka to put on.  
  
"Thank-you," said Nooka gratefully as she struggled to get her arm through the hole and one she had it firmly in place, she slipped it back into the sling. "By the way- my name is Nooka."  
  
"That's nice dórea," replied Ashkira placidly. 


	11. Dark, Telling Dreams

Chapter 10  
  
Weeks passed and although Nooka grew steadily skinnier and weaker as less and less food came through the opening from above- she was still relatively hopeful. Her arm was getting better every day and every day she thanked Ashkira profoundly for fixing it for her. They both got to know each other very well- having nothing else to do but sit and talk, and by the third week, they could have known each other for their whole lives. Nooka told Ashkira of Polgara and her foster sisters, Belgara and Beledra and her estranged grandparents and uncles. She told her of the Vale and of the huge tree at the centre of it all.  
  
Ashkira told her of her life in Gar Og Nadrak, of her sisters and all of her previous owners. She was astounded to hear of Polgara though. Apparently, Nooka's foster mother had made quite a reputation for herself a few decades back and Ashkira had spent her entire life looking up to the reputable 'Polana' and trying to model herself after her. Nooka was surprised that so many people knew of her family- and so little could know of where she really came from.  
  
It was a week or so later than all of the nostalgic conversation that Nooka and Ashkira felt the boat's underbelly scrape the sandy bottom of a port for the first time since they had left the River Aldur, for it was certain now that they had been on the open seas by the cries of the gulls and the briny smell that hung dankly in the air. The contact jarred Nooka awake out of a fitful doze and she rose sleepily from her position against Ashkira's shoulder. Her stomach was sore as her courses had come on her again just a few days before. She'd cried, of course, and Ashkira had comforted her as Polgara might have. "It is all right, dórea," she had said. "That is why I have such a pile of cloth beside me."  
  
~ ~ ~ ~  
  
"What's going on?" asked Nooka fearfully.  
  
"We've landed someplace, I suppose," replied Ashkira in a comfortingly unconcerned sort of way. "Don't be afraid, dórea, we will not be there just yet."  
  
"Are you sure-" queried Nooka, nervously glancing overhead at the sound of footsteps on the upper deck. "I mean- we've been down here over a month and we could be there by now, couldn't we?"  
  
The men's footsteps near the trap door and Nooka clung to Ashkira's arm in terror.  
  
"Nooka- little dórea, you must trust me, alright?" soothed the Nadrak woman as she put her arm affectionately around the tiny girl's shoulders. "If there is any way I can get you out of this- I will. All I need in my hands I one knife- just one- and we will be free as those gulls in the sky that bother us so when we try to sleep."  
  
"But I thought your hope of escaping was long gone. Ashkira- what has made you change your mind?"  
  
"You dórea," she replied as she tightened her hold on the small girl.  
  
"Me?" asked Nooka incredulously. "What on earth have I done?"  
  
"Your hope," she began thoughtfully. "And your innocence. You are just a tiny, wee girl- barely a woman. I simply cannot in good conscience allow you to be taken and forced to mate, especially not when you are so young. I think it might drive you to your death and I couldn't bear that- not if there was something I could have done about it. And," she continued mirthfully, "I am quite fond of you little Nooka- my sister has a daughter that I have not seen for quite some time- she must be older now. You remind me of her- my little niece was so like you when she was younger."  
  
"Oh," Nooka replied in a rather stunned, but happy tone, "thank-you Ashkira. I'm rather fond of you too."  
  
"You are very welcome dórea."  
  
~ ~ ~ ~  
  
It had been one month since Nooka's disappearance and Polgara had grown quite frantic during the unsuccessful search for her little foundling daughter. Always before, it had been someone else's child that had been taken- and they had all been -well- wearing something. But her little Nooka was gone without a trace and nothing Beledra, Belgara, or her mother could say would be able to comfort her until the tiny girl was safely in her arms.  
  
She couldn't quite put her finger on why she was so attached to Nooka- she had certainly loved Garion for all he was worth and more- and all of his ancestors too, just the same. And her own daughters meant more to her than the earth itself.  
  
But Nooka was more than her child, she was special in some way that had no name, no certain meaning other than if Nooka was lost, all the world was lost with her. And there was something so horrible about that possibility that Polgara dared not think of it for more than a few fleeting moments should it somehow come to pass in that very way.  
  
Under Horse's instruction, Polgara had beaten her wings to exhaustion down the River Aldur in search for the captor of her daughter and his tiny hostage, but to no avail. They were at least a day and a half ahead of the sorceresses and could have gone in any direction upon leaving the river for the open sea.  
  
There was no magic sword to help her now, no prophecies to guide her in her quest. She was lost.  
  
And lost she would stay until she could get some sort of a lead on where in Aloria that evil excuse for a man had taken her daughter.  
  
She had wandered Aldurford looking for anyone that had heard of the man Horse had so vaguely described, but it was a day or so after a fairly large wedding and most were still sleeping off the effects of the festivities.  
  
The one sober man down by the docks told her of a man with a small cargo boat in terrible condition that had passed through a day before but the direction he did not know. The man was odd and shifty looking, he had said, and none to intelligent either.  
  
Polgara had begun her search scouring the western coast of Aloria, all the way up to Drasnia to where Nooka might have gone had she managed to escape- but it was no use. Weeks later, there was still no sign. Polgara had sent her mother and daughters home to the Vale to tell Belgarath and Durnik what was going on and she had not heard much in the way from them either, save the occasional thought from her mother that told her that Nooka had not returned to the Vale.  
  
One night, as Polgara checked into a dreary little hostel in Drasnia, she began to feel rather ill and retired strait to bed instead of following through with her usual inquiry about her little girl. Not bothering to take off her travelling clothing, she collapsed onto the bed in a feverish heap and fell promptly into a deep state of unconsciousness.  
  
No one saw the sorceress as she lay in a bedraggled position on the bed, writhing sickly, beads of perspiration on her pale brow.  
  
No one saw the candle flicker and die to leave her in total darkness.  
  
And no one saw her cry out in horror at the terrors which visited her in her mind's eye.  
  
She saw her little girl in the bowels of a filthy boat, sleeping against the shoulder of a dark haired woman- she saw her cling to her in terror. Nooka was frightfully thin- dressed only in an over-tunic. Spots of blood were crudely decorating the already stained fabric and her arm was tied roughly about her neck in a sling.  
  
And suddenly, Polgara heard cries of outrage and fear. Nooka woke and gazed in mesmerized dread at the bright flames licking through the cracks in the ceiling and down the walls.  
  
The Nadrak woman woke and protectively put an arm around Nooka as she listened carefully to the panic overhead and quickly assessed the situation.  
  
Suddenly, the trap door was swung open and a ladder was thrown down the opening to the slaves.  
  
Nooka was rushed towards it by the dark-haired woman and shoved roughly up.  
  
Her little girl was crying in dreadful fear and Polgara cried out to her in her sleep, reaching with leaden arms to sooth her but not being able to reach across the cruel distance that separated them.  
  
They were above, on the deck now, and all hell was breaking loose. Fire exploded from every corner of the port and huge, disgusting animals were scurrying over any surface they could reach.  
  
It was the rats.  
  
Men with swords and daggers attacked the squealing beasts as the vermin lunged at their faces and chests, their yellow fangs glistening in the firelight.  
  
Nooka clung fearfully to the woman, but was quickly untangled from her. Nooka stood in absolute misery as the woman ran to one of the men fending off the giant beasts. With one smart blow to the back of his neck with the side of her hand, she quickly felled him and stole his dagger, her black hair whipping across her face in a strange wind.  
  
The last thing Polgara saw was Nooka and that woman running from the burning boat, the dark-haired beauty easily felling anyone who dared to come near the small girl or herself.  
  
She awoke from her vision with sweat pouring down her face and the back of her neck, drenching her all over and mingling with the tears she cried for her small girl. She had seen that port before. It was at Tol Horb on the Nedrane River.  
  
Nooka was being taken to the Dagashi. 


	12. Ale'ing Hearts

Chapter 11  
  
Nooka and Ashkira fled the burning port as though they themselves were on fire- though luckily, they were not.  
  
Upon reaching the boundaries of the village, Ashkira thought it prudent that she allow the small girl a rest. She was, after all, very wee, and right in the middle of her courses- not to mention very weak.  
  
When she slowed the tasking pace she had set, she realised that Nooka was still fearfully hysterical.  
  
"Dórea," she began softly as she stopped fully and wrapped Nooka in a safe embrace, "do not cry- we are free now."  
  
"I-I am sorry Ash-kira, I t-t-tend to cry whenever I'm f-frightened." Nooka hiccoughed loudly and buried her head into Ashkira's shoulder, trying to pretend for a moment that it was really her Polgara there with her.  
  
"Nooka, it's going to be alright. You have no need to be frightened now- I can take you home to the Vale and then I shall be off to Gar Og Nadrak to find my family and owner. I'm sure Slarblek will be happy to know that I haven't been killed after all."  
  
"B-but Ashkira- I have to get to Drasnia!" cried Nooka in outrage.  
  
"Silly little Nooka- are you trying to get yourself kidnapped again? Of course I will not let you go to Drasnia! I'm taking you home to your family and that is that. Perhaps you can get them to take you to Drasnia, but you simply cannot go all alone. You're such a tiny thing- totally defenceless- and there are very bad people roaming this world, just waiting for the opportunity to take you, to hurt you. Are you so selfish that you would put your mother through all of that worry when you can be home in just a few months time?"  
  
"SHE'S NOT MY MOTHER!" screamed Nooka as she tore herself away from the adamant woman and ran off down the road as fast as her tiny self would carry her.  
  
She ran until her lungs burned and then she ran herself until she couldn't breath at all. She stopped and panted in pain, falling to her knees.  
  
How DARE Ashkira tell her what to do she thought to herself as she berated the ground with her fists. She didn't understand. Not at all.  
  
Polgara was the most important person to her in the world, and she had been as a mother and more to Nooka all her life- but if Polgara was really her mother, she would not be calling her Polgara, now would she?  
  
How could Ashkira understand any of it? All of her family was normal. They led normal lives and they lived for a normal amount of time- how could that Nadrak woman even think to chastise her?  
  
If Nooka never made it home, Polgara would be fine, she was sure. Over her hundreds of years of loss, she had hardened herself to the pain of losing family and friends, and she would again. She would find another child, or better still, have another child that would live as long as the world itself continued to spin around the sun, as it had done for thousands upon thousands of years.  
  
Nooka sobbed outwardly at the thought of it all, feeling as though she would never belong, never be home.  
  
Ashkira finally caught up with that girl- and my how that tiny little sprite could run!  
  
She stood for a moment and looked at the small pile of Nooka on the stony roadway, feeling for an instant total and complete shame at making her cry so. But that fleeting moment passed and Ashkira walked indignantly to where Nooka was beating the dirt with little clenched fists.  
  
"Alright Nooka- what exactly is the problem?"  
  
"Polgara will live forever and I'm going to die and she'll forget me!" wailed Nooka in barely coherent string of sobs.  
  
"That is ridiculous," stated the Nadrak woman simply.  
  
"Whatever do you mean?! Of course it isn't ridiculous!" yelled Nooka angrily.  
  
"Oh- but it is," countered the woman self-assuredly. "Even if you never get home, that woman will remember you for the rest of time, and longer I'm sure. How anyone could forget you is impossible to comprehend. For instance," began Ashkira thoughtfully, "how could she forget all of the wonderful things you've done fore her- the drawing, the dinners, the time you've spent together. She's raised you from a baby! No woman can forget that, not even if she tried. And even if you do not live to be thousands of years old, you are simply wasting time you could be spending with her by running around the countries looking for people you may never find."  
  
Nooka sat in stunned and aching realisation that everything Ashkira was saying was positively true. She was selfish. She was ridiculous. And she wanted to go to Polgara so badly it made her heart crack in two and slide down into her stomach, where it proceeded to turn into a very heavy rock.  
  
"Take me to the Vale," Nooka stated haltingly. "Please."  
  
Ashkira smiled and outstretched her hand.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~  
  
After spending several days in bed recuperating after her sudden illness, Polgara quickly left the inn and took flight to Tol Horb. If her Nooka and that woman had made it safely from the village without being caught, things were all right. If not- then perhaps they would be punished- and most certainly they would be taken to the Dagashi.  
  
In her falcon form, she could make it to Tol Horb in two weeks time, possibly less if the weather was fair over the mountains.  
  
As the thirteenth night drew on, a blue-banded falcon dropped over the village of Tol Horb. Polgara made a hasty landing and quickly changed form in the cover of a grotty alleyway that smelled strongly of ale and mildew and fire.  
  
Of course, she had had the good fortune of landing directly adjacent to the Tol Horb pub. It wasn't that Polgara was disgusted by the smell, although that was a fair contribution to her distaste, she was rather sick with the thought that she might be too late to help her daughter. She entered the pub, narrowly avoiding being sent to the floor by a large, clearly drunken man as he tottered unevenly on his feet.  
  
Muttering some choice words, she strode over to the bartender in an exhausted sort of way and leaned casually against the bar.  
  
"What'll yeh have m'lady?" he slurred jovially.  
  
"Just a pint of ale thanks," said Polgara in an offhand manner. Though she wasn't planning on actually drinking any of the ale, she was sure that she had better at least order something to make her presence less of a conspicuous intrusion and more of a casual drink.  
  
"Comin' right up."  
  
The bartender shuffled around behind his counter and produced a none-too clean looking wooden mug of possibly the worst ale Polgara had ever had the mal-fortune of being within a foot or two of.  
  
"Thanks," she smiled gruffly. "Tell me- why on earth does the 'ole place smell as though somethin' 'as been lit on fire?" Adapting the brogue of a slightly lesser form of society would give her persona and extra push in the downward direction she was aiming for. "Ah," he muttered disgustedly, "a whole pack 'o rats been here just a fortnight ago- few oil lamps got knocked over in the commotion and set 'alf the village on fire. Me and me tavern was lucky though- missed us by a few- nay- one or two feet afore they was able to put it out."  
  
"Ah- a misfortune for the village to be sure," muttered Polgara woefully.  
  
"Ah, too true, too true," commiserated the old bartender.  
  
"Tell me, kind sir, was there any ship 'ere that night with a black tar outside and a gruff, simple looking man a'steering 'er?"  
  
"Ah- to be sure. He was a screaming and a shouting when 'is 'ole boat a went up in flames. Saw a bunch a scrawny looking women folk get outta' there too. Few ran away, t'others weren't as lucky. Saw the 'ole thing m'self. I was gettin' me new shipment 'o ale from me fella' businessman down there when the 'ole thing a started up. Tha's 'ow the fire spread so quick, y'see. Them flames a licked up me ale barrels like the devil and the 'ole shipment set afire quick as y'like. T'was 'orrible!" He finished his statement with a miserable moan and wiped a tear from his eye with a grubby hand.  
  
"Ah- say it isn't so!" cried Polgara.  
  
"T'is true milady!"  
  
"Tell me, kindly sire, did 'ye happen to see a tiny wee girl and a dark haired woman a runnin' from that boat? The girl is about four feet high, brown hair- the woman is tall, fairly easy on the eyes-"  
  
"Ah, and so I did milady! So I did. T'was headin' for the hills them two was, a killin' anyone 'oo came near 'em. You know 'em?"  
  
"I do. The little'un is me daughter and t'other's me own dear sister. They was taken from me a month ago when we was cleanin' our clothes down by the riverside. I have t' find 'em."  
  
"I wish 'yeh all the luck in the world milady- drink's on the 'ouse too!"  
  
"Thankee kind sire. I'll be sure t'tell all me friends about your fine establishment 'ere. I must be on my way- eh- you happen t'see which direction the be a headin' in?"  
  
"Last I saw 'em, t'were headin' towards Ugloland, down the road, that- away," he offered as he pointed an arm northeast.  
  
"Thanks." Polgara stood from her stool, promptly turned the ale into good clear water, which no one saw, and downed the whole thing in under a minute.  
  
"T'is a good brew me good sire. All the best o luck to yeh."  
  
"Same t'you milady. G'night."  
  
"Goodnight."  
  
With and ecstatic cry of triumph, Polgara 'went' falcon and flew off into the night. 


	13. River Revenge

Chapter 12  
  
"So, I'm not actually going mad," thought Polgara to no one in particular as she flew rapidly towards the Ulgo mountain range. The only pass to the Vale that she knew of was strait through the way the kindly old bartender had so simply pointed, and whoever that woman was, she seemed to have enough sense to escort her Nooka home.  
  
Keeping her sharp falcon eyes on the land below, she flew day and night, knowing that she was already many leagues behind her daughter and that strange, dark woman. On the seventh day, a fowl storm began to brew and the churning clouds did not bode well for the falcon who wasn't really. But despite the weather, Polgara soared on, and quite soon she spotted some signs of a fire.  
  
Swooping down to inspect, she found the remains of campfire that had been put out just a few days before. She looked for some sign of her daughter, a piece of cloth stuck on one of the surrounding trees, a tiny footprint, anything that would give her some sign that she was indeed following the right path towards her little foundling. The storm that had been forthcoming since the sun had disappeared behind the dark clouds near noon had finally broken and wind whipped around the sorceress in a fierce cascade of leaves and rain.  
  
Though Polgara could not really see very well, she continued her search and went just a bit deeper into the forest. The wind was no less in the deepness of the wood and it tore at her cloak and hair, forcing her to take hold of small trees as she went to avoid being taken with it. As she moved on, something flew into her face so quickly she thought it might have been a bird or a bat, but as she peeled the small item off of her rain-soaked face, she found it was a small, tattered piece of Nooka's over-tunic, with just enough of the girl's blood on it to convince Polgara that she was, indeed, going the right way.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Nooka hadn't traveled very far from home before, and as she and Ashkira wandered through the seemingly endless wilderness of the Great West Road, she realised that the world, not only the Vale, was a beautiful place.  
  
The fact that she was going home to her Gara made everything ten times better than it already was, and she mentally kicked herself for ever having left the Vale in the first place. She was sure if she'd had just asked Polgara, her foster-mother would have taken her to Drasnia gladly.  
  
Oh well. Done was done and now that she was going home, the future seemed so bright Nooka could hardly see a few feet in front of her in her hazy joy of finally returning to her only family.  
  
They had been traveling for half a fortnight now and they seemed no closer than when they had left a week ago. They had rested every night and built small fires for warmth. Ashkira allowed Nooka to snuggled close to her at night so she would not freeze. Luckily, it was still summer and the nights were fairly warm. They wouldn't starve, either, as fruits and berries were in full bloom and they came across many a stream that looked fit to drink from. They had, at the very least, a small pack with one pot in it and two bowls that Ashkira had pilfered from the village during the commotion on the night of their escape.  
  
Ashkira, Nooka thought to herself, was a good person to have around. She fought, she was an accomplished thief, and she loved Nooka enough to help alleviate the aching in her heart for Polgara, Beledra, Belgara, Durnik, and the rest of her family.  
  
Another uneventful week passed and Nooka and Ashkira had made it at least to the River Arend. They were all prepared to stop for the night when a terrible storm blew in, it seemed, out of nowhere.  
  
It had seemed a good plan to retreat aways back into the Forest of Vordue to see if some shelter could be taken under the dense foliage of the great wood, but what Ashkira had not counted on was the downhill slope from the river which led all the way down to their small encampment under a rocky overhang surrounded by trees.  
  
As the rain pounded the ground outside their small shelter, the situation became dire. No fire could be lit and the wind was howling through their small cavern like a gale force tornado. The water was filtering in a small stream into their little dent in the forest floor and as the water kept coming down from above the stream progress into a river, which progressed into a set of fiercely raging rapids.  
  
"What's happening?" screamed Nooka over the roar of the water and the howling of the wind.  
  
"The river's overflowing. We've got to get out of hear dórea, before we both drown!"  
  
Ashkira took tight hold of Nooka's good arm and half dragged, half carried the girl from the cavern, leaving all they had behind them to be washed further into the now drenched forest.  
  
"Where are we going?" cried Nooka as she hurried along beside Ashkira to avoid being pulled off of her feet by the fleeing woman.  
  
"To higher ground! We've got to get across the bridge to Arendia!" Nooka asked no more questions. It was too tasking to shout through the raging storm and she needed to save her breath for the running.  
  
The ground of the forest was slick with mud and wet leaves and the pair had to scrambled through and over fallen trees to make it out of the forest.  
  
Both were terribly lucky. They didn't break anything and they were even relatively clean as the reached the borders of the forest and sprinted towards the bridge which crossed over the heaving river to the other side, the Arendish side.  
  
"We're going make it!" shouted Nooka jubilantly as they took a first step onto the shoddy overpass to Arendia.  
  
Just then a bright flash of white lightning streaked across the purple sky, and connected soundly with a large tree on the opposite side of the bank, just as far as Nooka could see down the river.  
  
With a painful crack, the tree exploded into fiery sparks and came crashing down clear into the river, blocking the water's passage to the ocean.  
  
As though not sure what to do, the water churned confusedly and flowed back and around the tree, make the river change direction entirely.  
  
"Oh Gods! Nooka," screamed Ashkira, "RUN!"  
  
But her reaction was too late. The water took its wrath out upon the bridge and as it washed out the ancient crossing, Nooka and Ashkira were taken along with it.  
  
Nooka sputtered and choked on the water. Wading in a calm, shallow stream was safe, and soothing. But being swept down a violently raging rapid was something entirely different. Nooka didn't like water like that. Nooka didn't like it one bit.  
  
She grabbed hold of a splintering piece of the bridge and clung to it for dear life, not caring that thousands of little fibres were working their way painfully into her little white hands.  
  
"Ash-Ashkira!?" she called through a mouthful of water. "Wherever are you?"  
  
"Nooka! Nooka, where are you? I'm coming- don't move!" came the panicked replied. It sounded very much as though Ashkira thought just about as much of the water in it's present state as Nooka did.  
  
"I'll endeavour not to Ashkira, but you know how it is- trying to stay static in a set of rapids I mean!" replied Nooka sarcastically. The possibility of drowning seemed to have left her a insignificantly little bit caustic.  
  
"You know what I mean!" yelled Ashkira as she appeared over a wave and swam quickly towards Nooka.  
  
Despite the danger she was in, Nooka couldn't help but giggle at the Nadrak woman. "Just what are you laughing at little dórea?" panted Ashkira as she heaved herself halfway over the board that Nooka was clinging so desperately to.  
  
"Not a thing- what are we going to do?"  
  
"Well-" began Ashkira slowly, still catching her breath, "I suppose we'll have to wait until we're washed ashore somewhere. I can't see us swimming very far through this and I don't want to risk losing this board as it seems to have done a very efficient job of saving both our skins thus far."  
  
Nooka grasped onto one of Ashkira's hands and rested her head against the board in exhaustion. She hoped they would get out of the blasted river soon.  
  
She hated rivers. 


	14. What Do You MEAN You've Killed Her?

Chapter 13  
  
Daylight broke across the grey sky and brightened it to bluer than blue. Nooka had actually fallen asleep- and she awoke to find Ashkira looking at her with calm dark eyes.  
  
"So, you've decided to join me- how wonderful dórea," remarked Ashkira in an irritable sort of way.  
  
"Sorry," muttered Nooka as she rubbed some wood chips off of her head.  
  
"Never you mind. It looks as though we're about to wash ashore fairly soon. Why don't we sing something until then, alright?"  
  
"Yes'm!" stated Nooka dutifully.  
  
And so they sang. It kept them from falling asleep. It keep them from falling off of the log. And most importantly- it kept them from biting each other's heads off.  
  
When they finally hit the sandy bottom of a now very much calmer river, they had gone through their entire repertoires- twice.  
  
"Lovely," Nooka smiled as she stood on solid ground once more. She felt, and looked as well she supposed, rather like a drowned rat. But, she was rather clean now as well.  
  
As she shook the remaining water from her hair, she performed a small scan of their new surroundings.  
  
There were mountains. That was either very, very bad- or somewhat good. Which, Nooka was not sure. On the bad side, they had been washed back down to Tolnedra. On the good side, they had been washed closer to the Ulgo mountains and nearer to Prolgu, where they could entreat upon the most holy Gorum to let them pass through the caves of UL. Seeing as how the newest Gorum was a friend of her family's- she supposed it would not really be a problem.  
  
"Okay, Ashkira, where in fiery pits of below are we?" asked Nooka as she tried to wring the water out of her overtunic.  
  
"Mountains," she mused slowly.  
  
"Yes- I'd noticed that," agreed Nooka somewhat sourly.  
  
"No-" argued Ashkira, "I mean, we're definitely closer to Prolgu. You can tell by the shape and size of the mountains. Nearer to Tolnedra, they go flat at the top, but here, near Prolgu, they are much steeper and pointier. We're in good shape little girl. Very good shape indeed." "Good. Lets get a move on then!"  
  
And so they moved, and on I might add.  
  
Sooner or later, more soon than late, they ran into trouble once more. Lots, and lots of trouble.  
  
"Halt! Who cometh hence? State thy name and thy purpose, and perhaps we shall not harm thee!"  
  
Nooka looked up. And then she looked up quite a bit further.  
  
It was a Mimbrate knight.  
  
"Arends," she sighed to herself.  
  
"What sayeth you? Speak up! Speak up!"  
  
Nooka again looked upon the bellowing knight.  
  
"Tell me good sire- dost thou serve under the most wondrous and mighty Mandorallen?"  
  
"Prithee, how knowest thou mine father's own name?" he asked in flabbergasted pageantry.  
  
"My foster mother, the Lady Polgara, Duchess of Erat speaks of him most often good sire. What happenstance that you should be thee son of the most conversed of man in my humble household!" Nooka clapped her hands together in mock joy and embraced the giant wholeheartedly.  
  
"Ahh! Friends of mine own dear family. Prithee, join us this eve ere the sun set less in the sky to fashion such darkness as is unseemly to a lady's eye."  
  
A deep flourishing bow followed that great spiel of flowery speech and Nooka muffled laughter.  
  
"I am deeply troubled in the depths of mine own heart to tell you sire, that we cannot sup with you this night of nights. We must away to Prolgu. My dear, kind friend Lady Ashkira is escorting me home to the Vale. My mother will be most rampant if we do not return with the utmost of haste."  
  
"I think, Madame," began the son of Mandorallen earnestly, "that thou hast not fully considered the import of what I have told thee."  
  
"Prithee, what dost thou mean by that?" queried Nooka politely. It sounded like a threat to her.  
  
Mandorallen's son cleared his throat with a nervous cough.  
  
"I mean only that thou wouldst not besmirch thy mother's good name by refusing to sup with mine relations this eve. We would, of course, be most honoured if thou would allowest us to be thy escorts till you reach the holy safe which Prolgu is the entirety."  
  
Another swooping bow follow, feathers swishing into Nooka's face, making her cough.  
  
"If that is thy plan then, good knight-" began Nooka exultantly, linking arms with Ashkira and the knight, "Lead on! Lead on!"  
  
~ ~ ~ ~  
  
The storm was wild. The hawk Polgara quickly plummeted to the earth in a fierce downdraft.  
  
So- she went wolf.  
  
She could still cover significant expanses of ground, but her visibility was so limited now it was almost pointless to continue. But, as Polgara saw nothing- save her father's love of ale- as totally without cause, she continued, despite her rain-blindness and the aching chill in her paws.  
  
She was in the Vordue Forest now- rather the River Vordue. She was up to her wolfy elbows in the drink and was none too pleased about it. Although Polgara was very fond of taking baths- frequently- even the Sorceress had her limits.  
  
But as she swam through the flooded wood, she began to wonder how her Nooka was adjusting to all of this wet.  
  
All this and more set Polgara to her cause with heightened determination.  
  
She was plodging merrily along when a large pot very rudely interrupted- by flying into her head and well- lets put it this way: Would you still be conscious after being brained by a very large, free-sailing pot?  
  
I didn't think so.  
  
A thoroughly unconscious wolf floated back downstream much to her unvoiced consternation. But, when she came back into the world of the non- cataleptic, she WOULD voice, and she would voice very loudly- for she had been put at least another day behind her roaming daughter.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Nooka and Ashkira were led to Vo Mimbre by Mandorallen's own son, who was, by the way, called Mandorallen as well.  
  
Following a long string of thee's and thou's and flowery soliloquies the weary, dreary, and rather waterlogged travelers were put through the seemingly endless and excruciatingly painful introductions Arends were so terribly fond of.  
  
Ashkira, Nooka had noticed, seemed to have fallen to sleep on her feet, her dark head drooping more and more with each passing phrase.  
  
The tiny girl, however, was finding it rather hard to not laugh out loud. Even though all of it was terribly boring, it more like going to a play than actually talking to anyone- and thanks to Polgara, she could thee and thou with the best of them.  
  
Finally the charade was brought to a quick finish when the Nadrak woman actually dozed off and fell to the floor. But the household of Mandorallen wasn't insulted in the least. They had all convinced themselves that she had fallen away in a faint, as that was so much more romantic than falling asleep.  
  
Nooka thought it all hilarious. She was also thankful that this conveniently allowed them to retire for the evening, without being put through the dinner.  
  
Once in the large, lavishly furnished room that they were to share, Ashkira lay down on one of the large, downy four-poster beds, sinking deep among pillows and soft fabrics. She sighed contentedly and Nooka laughed.  
  
"What's so funny dórea?" asked the woman drowsily.  
  
"Well," began Nooka mirthfully, "first you fell asleep during a rather sweet speech on your behalf, and now you are drowning in bed linens. I think it's funny is all."  
  
Nooka returned to the bath that had been drawn for her and removed the spotty, filthy, rancid over-tunic that she had been wandering around in for over two months. Her shyness from when she was still in the Vale was gone now. A least in front of Ashkira. She was, after all, another woman- and she had met Nooka when the girl had been thrown naked down that hole in the deck of the slave ship like an animal. Besides all of that, the woman was probably asleep again!  
  
At any rate- the bath was warm and it smelled of lavender and roses. Nooka sunk below the water and stayed there for as long as she could hold her breath, revelling in the warmth and sanity of it all.  
  
Finally, she took to actually washing the grime off of herself with the creamy, white soap that had been provided for her.  
  
She was nearly ready to come out when there came a knock on the aged wooden door of their small guest suite.  
  
"Just a minute- I will be ready quite soon to answer to thy call!" yelled Nooka nervously. After all, she hadn't been dropped naked down a hole to a bunch of stuffy Mimbrate Arends- just Ashkira.  
  
She leapt out of the water and skidding across the floor she grabbed onto the towel hanging on a screen by the crackling fire.  
  
She tired hurriedly to dry herself off when the door began to open.  
  
"Not yet!" yelled Nooka as she flew to the door and slammed it shut with all the force of her body, which though small, was a substantial enough weight to send whosoever was on the other side of the door reeling across the hallway. Nooka knew this because she felt the body collide with her door and then heard the crack of the victim's head on the floor.  
  
Nooka- horrified- threw on the nightshirt and flung the door wide open. She was expecting to see possibly a serving woman, perhaps a knight in the oddest of circumstances- but when she saw the flaming red hair shimmering and the body that was only inches taller than her own-  
  
She'd killed the Queen of Riva. 


	15. Killane

Chapter 14  
  
Polgara the wolf floated down the river two days back of where she had been. On a sunny, bright morning, she was washed upon the rather uncomfortable stone doorstep of a tiny little house. Not that she noticed it was uncomfortable, she was still out cold.  
  
An old man suddenly shuffled out of the doorway, nearly tripping over the large, sopping canine that was sprawled haphazardly on his front stoop. Muttering slurred obscenities through his toothless gums, he bent over as far as his decrepit back would allow and inspected the beast. "Nedra-" he gasped in awe. It was a wolf. There were no wolves where he lived. The government had seen to that. Personally, the old man had been insulted, but it wasn't really his business to go about bossing the officials of Tolnedra.  
  
He grunted as he picked up the beast, staggering in his dotage, his bony knees shaking of their own fancy. He lurched back inside his small hut and deposited the bulk of Polgara in front of his fireplace.  
  
Chuckling gleefully to himself, he set some water to boil and covered the poor, wet wolf with a blanket. He was a strange old man, and liked wolves so much that the prospect of actually saving one's life was so heroic to him, he was thoroughly pleased with himself. .  
  
In simple samaritanism, he set to work making a stew and checked on the wolf every now and then to see it was thankfully still breathing.  
  
When the wolf finally awoke, the stew had finished it's lengthy stewing and the old man was spooning it into a wooden bowl. Polgara was weak and had a terribly pounding, ringing, throbbing headache. She was most certainly not in a good mood. And wet- was she wet! And the blanket that had been thrown over her, no matter how kind the thought was when the old man carried out his duties, smelled like a vulture's crotch.  
  
The old man, seeing her return to consciousness quickly shuffled over to her and attempted to get on the ground beside her, which of course, was a lengthy process. After all, ancient joints were never there to cooperate.  
  
Polgara could not help but produce a wolfy smile.  
  
With the stew in hand, the old man moaned and groaned as he tried to discover a comfortable position for old bones on an old, hard floor. He looked at her then, actually making eye contact with her for the first time. He gasped in surprise, nearly spilling the stew as the mush sloshed around in the old wooden bowl.  
  
"What eyes!" he exclaimed in astonishment.  
  
"Well," thought Polgara to herself, "I think I quite like this man already!"  
  
Another wolfy smile was produced.  
  
"Aye, you're a good lass Miss Wolf," he stated kindly as he patted her soggy fur. "I've brought some stew for yeh'- it has lots of meat and potatoes and the likes. The warm will do yer cold bones some good, I reckon. I'll feed yeh' o'course. Unless you don't be wanting me to." He waited patiently from some kind of answer for her, perhaps he knew she wasn't really a wolf, but a human after all.  
  
Polgara licked his hand happily, approving of his offer.  
  
"Right-o Miss Wolf."  
  
And he fed her.  
  
And fed her.  
  
And then- he fed her some more.  
  
In fact, he was so enthralled with the sheer joy of saving such a creature's life, he lost track of the fact that her stomach was only so large.  
  
"Here Miss Wolf, finish 'er up now, like a good lass." The old man shoved another spoon in her mouth.  
  
Polgara dutifully gagged it down, and although it was good, and warm, she was starting to feel quite sick.  
  
"Would you like some more Miss Wolf?"  
  
Polgara lolled her tongue out in a plea of illness, which the old man -of course- mistook as another smile.  
  
As he approached her with yet another bowl of stew, Polgara let out a whine of pure desperation as she prepared herself for more.  
  
Luckily, the old man discovered just how wet and shivering "Miss Wolf" still was and he instead took a towel to her and placed her closer to the fire, pillowing her head on another blanket.  
  
Polgara returned to sleep.  
  
When she awoke again, three days had passed and her strength was slowly, but thankfully returning to her wearied bones.  
  
Her recovery was long, but each day, the man would take her for a walk, and each day, they would walk a little further than the day before.  
  
And so, on the tenth day of her stay at the "Samaritan Inn", Polgara finally had enough strength to 'go human' again.  
  
She sat on the floor of the cabin in an appealing pose, gazing at the old man as he sat in his chair and smoked an old pipe that was producing thick, scented smoke.  
  
She hoped he would sense her trust in him because she would need it- she was going human.  
  
As she felt the familiar will rise in her, come to her from all around, she knew that she would transform easily, and quickly.  
  
As she lost her fur and turned into her radiant human form, the man gasped, but more in joy that in surprise.  
  
"Polgara!" he stuttered happily.  
  
"Ah- so you have heard of me," she said as she smiled and walked over to the old man, taking one of his hands kindly.  
  
"Ah yes, me old great granddaddy heard of yeh' from his greater granddaddy- Methinks his name was Killane-"  
  
"KILLANE!" she gasped in surprise, an old hurt rising in her eyes, coupled with the love and happiness she had shared with that kind soul.  
  
Impulsively, she bent and embrace the old man, kissing him delicately on his wrinkled, whiskery old cheek.  
  
"Ah Polgara, you're makin' me blush!" declared the man bashfully.  
  
"Killane was a good man- I can see where you get it from." Polgara wiped a tear from her eye and smiled.  
  
"Well Polgara, I suppose you'll be going home now- is there anything else I can do for yeh'?"  
  
"I should be asking that of you- uh-" Polgara still didn't know her saviour's name.  
  
"Uh- yeh' wont believe it-" he began reluctantly.  
  
"Killane! How perfectly wonderful!" Polgara resisted the urge to embrace him again- his face was still beet red from the last time. "Is there anything I can do for you Killane?"  
  
"Well- yeh' couldn't do anything for this horrible rheumatism could yeh'? I can't seem to do a thing anymore for lack of being able to move any of my joints!"  
  
"Of course- it will only take a moment or two. Just relax and I'll be done with it quick as you like."  
  
Polgara knelt before the old man and a look of fierce concentration came over her face as she began reconstructing the cartilage and ligaments around the man's deteriorating bones.  
  
Within five minutes, she was done, and a look of sheer relief passed over the man's aged face.  
  
"A- thank you Lady-o!"  
  
Polgara felt a fresh wave of tears at the old nickname.  
  
Killane the second, or third got up and did a fancy little jig for the sorceress and she clapped when he was finished.  
  
"That was lovely Killane. But I must be going now. I've lost my daughter, she's run away from home and I've got to find her!"  
  
"Tis a terrible thing Polgara! How old is the wee one?"  
  
"Just fourteen- and she's a foot and a half shorter than me! I'm terribly worried about her- I've seen- things. I know where she was but I missed her. I think she's heading for home now, but the way is so dangerous!"  
  
"I'm sure you'll find her dear Polgara. But you'd best be off. Don't let a silly old man like me stop yeh!"  
  
"Thank-you Killane. I'll come back and visit you when I find my Nooka, and bring her with me so she can meet a Killane just like his great, greater, greatest grandfather."  
  
"Good luck Polgara. Take care now!" said Killane as he led her to the door of his small cabin.  
  
Polgara went hawk and soared out of sight, giving a final shriek of farewell to a new-found friend. 


	16. Pretty Little Head?

Chapter 15  
  
Nooka leapt spastically into the hall and knelt beside the seemingly deceased queen.  
  
"Ce'Nedra!" she sobbed as she cradled the woman's head in her arms. "Oh God, someone help me!"  
  
Ashkira flew out into the hallway at the sound of the tiny girl's cries and quickly took action to assess the situation.  
  
"Nooka, love, what happened?" Ashkira knelt beside Nooka and wrapped the girl in a restrictive embrace.  
  
"I- I've killed her!" shrieked Nooka as she let the queen's head fall to the floor and began tearing at her own hair.  
  
Ashkira grabbed Nooka's hands and held them firmly.  
  
"Nooka, you haven't killed her, she's just unconscious. Look- do you see how her chest is rising and falling?"  
  
Nooka closely examined her "cousin" and found that she was indeed breathing.  
  
"What am I going to do Ashkira? Garion's going to kill me if he finds out that I've knocked his wife unconscious!"  
  
Ashkira looked at Nooka, perplexed. "You know this woman?"  
  
"She's my cousin's wife! I've known her since I can remember! She's the Queen of Riva!" Nooka grabbed hold of Ce'Nedra again and tried to wake her from her slightly influenced state of unconsciousness.  
  
"I'm sure that Garion- Belgarion?" Ashkira paused and Nooka nodded. "I'm sure that King Belgarion will understand. It was an accident, wasn't it?"  
  
Nooka glared at Ashkira. "What do you take me for? A common cutthroat?"  
  
"Nooka, don't be offended please. You stay here in case she wakes up and I'll go and see if Mandorellan's around."  
  
Nooka nodded weakly and clung to Ce'Nedra.  
  
As far as she knew, the queen was not young. She looked very young because of her dryad heritage, but all of her children were grown and one even had a child of her own. Nooka wondered if Ce'Nedra would be angry with her for running away from home. She had fleeting thoughts of running away now just to be safe from the wrath of Ce'Nedra. She and her Gara were very close and the thought of being reprimanded yet again by someone else was enough to set her running.  
  
"I wouldn't," came a reproving voice.  
  
"Ce'Nedra!" shouted Nooka as she jumped in surprise.  
  
Ce'Nedra was given a necklace by Polgara's dead sister, Belderan. The amulet that hung from it enabled her to hear the thoughts of others, even against their will. Unknowingly, Nooka had been thinking very loudly and Ce'Nedra must have heard her.  
  
"Ce'Nedra- I'm so sorry! I thought you were one of the knights or perhaps another woman from the castle. I was in the middle of taking a bath and I thought that whoever was outside the door was going to come in and- well, you know." Nooka spread her hands in a gesture of implication.  
  
"It's alright dear," said Ce'Nedra as she embraced the congruent little girl. "I've been hit on the head before- and this way, your mother will have another reason to call me scatter-brained. And speaking of which," began the diminutive queen as Nooka shrunk in the woman's arms, "What exactly are you doing here? Polgara has been turning over every rock in the world looking for you. Everyone's been worried sick! Durnik is beside himself because he's decided to convince himself that it's all his fault, and your kitten is very put out with you. Oh Nooka!" Ce'Nedra embraced the tiny girl again and kissed her feverently on the forehead. "What were you thinking?"  
  
And then Nooka went to great lengths to explain to Ce'Nedra just exactly what she had been thinking when she rode Horse from the Vale on that afternoon that seemed so very long ago.  
  
"I know it was stupid," Nooka finished, "but I couldn't think of anything else to do. Ashkira is taking me back to the Vale now, though, and I know that it doesn't matter whether I die or not. I've got to get back to my Gara!"  
  
"It's alright sweetheart. We're all allowed to be irrational at some point in our lives. When I was sixteen, I had decided that I was going to escape my fate of marrying and run away to the wood of the Dryads to live with my aunt."  
  
"I trust it didn't go well?" asked Nooka.  
  
"No. Polgara decided that I absolutely had to marry the King of Riva."  
  
"But I though that you loved Garion!" cried Nooka passionately.  
  
"Of course I did silly- but everyone else wanted me to love Garion too, and it simply wouldn't do to please that many people at once!" Ce'Nedra laughed.  
  
Nooka smiled weakly and spoke. "What do I do now?"  
  
"Well," began the Queen, "I'll just have to give Polgara a little ring with this necklace hear and she'll be with us sooner than you can say 'owl'."  
  
Nooka wrapped her arms around Ce'Nedra again as the tiny woman took hold of her amulet and closed her eyes in fierce concentration. When again she opened her eyes, she wore a tired, but happy smile.  
  
"Well?" asked Nooka eagerly.  
  
"She'll be here in one week," replied Ce'Nedra. "But she doesn't know that you will be. I told her only that our good friends the Knights had a lead on your whereabouts. I wasn't exactly lying to her, but I thought that you might like to tell her about yourself when she gets here."  
  
"I'd like that, yes."  
  
Just then, Ashkira returned with a large, nervous looking Mimbrate Knight.  
  
"Ah, I see you've woken up," said Ashkira cheerily.  
  
"Yes, I have thank-you. You must be Ashkira," said Ce'Nedra as she stood up and took Ashkira's hand. "I'm Ce'Nedra, Nooka's cousin."  
  
"It's wonderful to meet you," replied Ashkira warmly. If she was intimidated by Ce'Nedra's nobility, she didn't show it.  
  
"Likewise," stated the Queen amiably.  
  
"Uh- my dear Queen," interjected the timorous looking knight, "I wonder if you should not retire to your room and mayhaps sleep off that terrible lump which does mar your beauteous self."  
  
"Oh, don't be stuffy," replied the Queen flippantly. But then, she was a Queen and she was allowed to do things like that. "I'm going to take Nooka and Ashkira back to my quarters and we're going to do each other's hair and giggle and so forth. I'll be quite alright, Granllen so don't worry your pretty little head about it!"  
  
But Granllen was too busy trying not to look insulted to see the Queen, her cousin and the Lady Ashkira disappearing down the hall. 


	17. You Stupid Girl!

Chapter 16

The one week in which it took Polgara to reach Vo Mimbre was seemingly endless for the Sorceress. Nooka, however was suffering from two conflicting ailments. Time passed, as time usually did, but Nook could not decipher exactly whether she wanted time to speed up, or slow down. Should time fly, as it usually does when one is awaiting a loved one- Polgara would be there soon. But should Polgara be there, she would be very angry with Nooka- but Nooka loved Polgara- but…

And so you see the dilemma which faced our small little foundling. 

Graciously, time marched on in it's steady pace that was really quicker nor slower, and true to her word, Polgara arrived in Vo Mimbre seven days later. 

Polgara stalked fervently through the hallways of the drafty old castle- everyone was asleep- which was not odd because it was the middle of the night. She flung open doors as she went, checking each room for Ce'Nedra. If her mind had been working at all, she would have thought to use her talent to seek out the little queen, but- Polgara was definitely not on her game. 

Door after door, room after room and Polgara was no closer. Door room, room door, door- _wait!_

There was a small form lying in this bed, snoring softly. Polgara had never know Ce'Nedra to snore, but she supposed that the woman was slipping into her older years, and old people, as Polgara frequently noticed in her venerated father, tended to snore. She marched briskly to the bed and peered down at the figure, the dark making it increasingly difficult to discern anything. 

"Ce'Ned-" but that was as far as Polgara got before she let out a low cry and gathered the sleeping figure into her arms, crushing her to her breast. Unfortunately, the small person screamed in terror at being held so tightly, and wrenched so suddenly from sleep. The horrors of the Dagashi slave boat were still fresh in her mind. 

"No-please- let go of me- I don't _want_ to go-" said Nooka fuzzily, as she struggled in the unknown arms. Then, just as quickly as it begun, something dawned on Nooka. She looked up right into the glorious blue eyes of her Gara. 

"Mummy!" she sobbed in joyful exultation. She threw herself full force into the totally bewildered Polgara and sent them both sprawling backwards onto the floor. 

But neither of them minded terribly, you see. They were both too busy squeezing the dear life out of one another.

_Mummy_? thought Polgara. _She's never called me that before…_

But it didn't matter an ounce to Polgara. It touched the Sorceress in such a way that she suddenly saw Nooka as more than a foundling, but as her own child. If Nooka wanted to call her 'mummy', then that's what she'd answer to. Mind you, Polgara would answer to 'radish' should Nooka decided so now. It didn't matter at all now that she had her little girl back. But then, the horror of the months without Nooka all came raging back and Polgara could scarcely keep hold of her emotions.

"Oh Nooka- you _stupid_ girl!" exclaimed Polgara as she held the little thing away from her to examine her thoroughly. "Stand up and let me look at you- now!"

Nooka obeyed wearily, though fearfully- Polgara sounded _really_ angry. The sorceress peered intently at Nooka for several minutes before rocking back on her heels and surveying the small girl with a mixture of relief and anger, the two emotions chasing each other across the woman's lovely face. Little did Nooka know that her foster mother had been examining her not only with her sharp eyes, but with her mind, which was shaper still. Polgara counted Nooka lucky that she had gotten through the entire ordeal with only a fractured arm to show for it- however badly the arm was healing on it's own due to malnourishment and horrible conditions.

"Nooka, sit down in front of me," ordered Polgara with an air of utter command. 

Tiny Nooka complied drowsily- she had, after all, been woken up in the middle of the night and the excitement was starting to take it's toll. As she did so, Polgara took Nooka's arm into her strong and capable hands and felt the bone. It was not healing well at all. "Nooka- how did you do this?" she asked.

"Some big ugly man dropped me down the hole into some slave boat- it was _dreadful_!" Nooka allowed herself a moment to feel slightly sorry about her broken arm. "It hurt awfully badly, but then Ashkira-" 

"The Nadrak woman?" asked Polgara sharply. She was maybe just _slightly_ jealous of the other woman that had so dominated Nooka's life for the past few months. 

Nooka nodded. "Ashkira tried to fix it for me. She pulled it all back into place and- oh that hurt! But it felt better afterwards. Anyway, she pulled it all back into place and then splinted it with some junk lying around the floor."

"Well," admitted Polgara grudgingly, "under the circumstances, she did a remarkable job. She saved your arm, you know."

Nooka nodded, remembering how Ashkira had warned her that if the arm wasn't set and bound, that it might become infected and perhaps just fall off…

"However," Polgara continued with a clinical detachment, "it was not done to the perfection I would like and I'm going to have to fix it." Polgara expected a protest, but was surprised when Nooka only nodded grimly. 

"I figured as much. I knew it wasn't quite right after Ashkira set it, but really, it was the best she could do." Nooka felt that she owed Ashkira some defence- after all, Ashkira had taken care of her for all of those weeks to the very best of her ability, and Nooka had come to love Ashkira tremendously. 

"I know dear-" said Polgara distractedly, for she was again examining the arm. She was so lost in thought that she started a bit when Nooka next spoke up. "What was that?"

"I said, is it going to hurt?" Nooka was not especially looking forward to the prospect of having her arm re-broken, just so that it could be set properly. 

"Well, no actually. I can give you a mixture of herbs that will reduce feeling in the arm and put you to sleep. It will of course ache afterwards, but it's the price to pay for having a strait and properly functioning arm- and as far as I'm concerned, you'll live through it."

"Alright- I suppose I haven't got any choice in this?" asked Nooka, rather hopefully. 

"No dear, not really," replied Polgara mildly. 

"I didn't think so," replied Nooka in a resigned sort of tone. Then, "Gara- are you very angry with me for running away?"

"No dear," sighed Polgara softly, "not really. You frightened me, that's all- and generally, people don't like to be frightened."

"Oh-" said Nooka, contemplating this new information. She then looked again into her mother's eyes and said sincerely, "I'm really sorry I ran away Gara- I didn't want to hurt you at all- I just had to know that, well-" 

"That I wouldn't forget you if you were to live out the normal human lifespan and then die?" Polgara took a deep breath. "Oh Nooka- how could you _ever _think that?" Polgara's tone was anguished. "I may not always seem kind or fair to you, and you may feel that I don't love you from time to time, but you must never- _never_ doubt that I love you Nooka. I love you so much that sometimes I think that I'll go completely mad if I ever lose you. I know that I did not give birth to you, and that you may feel jealous of Belgara and Beledra- but you mustn't _ever_ feel that I don't love you as much as I love my other children, or Garion, or Ce'Nedra. You are _mine_, Nooka- and I'll not forget you, no matter how much you think I will. I may hide pain, and I may seem detached and cold- but I _never_ forget Nooka."

Nooka smiled tearfully. "I guess I've been rather stupid about this whole thing, haven't I?"

"Just a little dear," replied Polgara gently. 

Nooka then looked slightly nauseated. "Are you going to fix my arm tonight?"

"I think it will wait until morning dear- unless you really wanted me to fix it now?" Polgara's eyes twinkled mischievously, but her face showed no outward sign of jest. 

Nooka stared at Polgara in horror. "T-that's alright Gara- I think it can wait too."

"I rather thought you might feel that way about it," commented Polgara dryly. "Now- if you don't mind, I think I'll just ask you to climb up into my lap so that I can hold onto you for the rest of your life."

"Yes'm," Nooka said impudently as she did as Gara said, wrapping her arms about her mother as though she would never let go.  


End file.
